Voragine, Jacobus [Jacopo] de, Saint. [Medieval Manuscrip...

[Legenda Aurea] ...legendas sanctorum ...iacobus.. [with at end] De Sacramento corp(or)is et Sangui(n)us d. n. Jesu Xt sue aitaris.

      Lyon [France]: De Gaselle, scribe, September 1st, 1468. Small folio. 280 x 208mm. Bound (mostly) in12s with catchmarks on verso of last leaf of each gathering: a-g12, h10, q12; r10; s12, t11 [lacks t9, blank? see below]; u-z12; 2z;12; [sign 9]12; 2a12; 3'z'=B12; C-H12,I10 [I9 & 10 blank and present]. biofolium a1 & conjugate leaf a12 on vellum, single leaf I4 on vellum all else on paper. Text Complete. [3ff blank]; 399ff=804pp. Handsome period style modern blind-tooled paneled calf, spine banded with blind-tooled design; contemporary brass clasps, occ. spotting and foxing, light dampstain to upper margin of opening leaves and fore- and bottom edge at end, first leaf slightly soiled, infrequent contemporary marginalia and corrections, pinwormhole in first four leaves (some text affected) and in fore-margin at end; a very pleasing copy. Dated colophon on verso of I2. Watermarked paper with "raisin or grape cluster device" close to Briquet 12996 (1446) Piedmontese watermark group.The leaf missing and present only in a stub was not part of the text of Voragine. It stood at the spot identifying the end of the Life Of St Dominic, especially important to our author who was a Dominican and at the point of the text that a Bull of Nicholas IV declared there to be a natural break. This tradition of a break here in the text, accompanied with a different order of the listing of the saints than those followed in the rest of Europe, was only followed in France and, because it is based on a French edition, Caxton's translation of Voragine. First leaf has illuminated 9 line initial in blue on gold burnished ground, with center left blank for historiation, borders floriated on f1r, 2 and 3 line rubricated initials throughout, with chapter headings in red. In a strong slightly sloping cursive bookhand. Two columns of text with 37 lines. Contemp. collation marks in lower right corner; catchmarks on the verso of the last leaf of each gathering. 5 line colophon in French batard "Anno d(atu)m millo mjiii lxviii fuit septub pris lib(e)r De opus ut utilitat(e)r Auth gasellyany m(a)g)(ister)a in artibus de montrbrisor lugd dyocises] dGasellyany" De [or vom] Gaselle is a patronym of Flemish origin but we have not been able to locate any other manuscripts by this scribe. He describes himself as "master in arts" from the monastery of Montbrison which was located near Lyon. Blessed Jacopo de Voragine. Archbishop of Genoa and medieval hagiologist, born at Viraggio (now Varazze), near Genoa, about 1230; died 13 July, about 1298. In 1244 he entered the Order of St. Dominic, and soon became famous for his piety, learning, and zeal in the care of souls. His fame as a preacher spread throughout Italy, and he was called upon to preach from the most celebrated pulpits of Lombardy. After teaching Holy Scripture and theology in various houses of his order in Northern Italy, he was elected provincial of Lombardy in 1267, holding this office until 1286, in which year he become definitor of the Lombard province of Dominicans. In the latter capacity he attended a chapter at Lucca in 1288, and another at Ferrara, in 1290. In 1288 he was commissioned by Pope Nicholas IV to free the Genoese from the ban of the Church, which they had incurred for assisting the Sicilians in their revolt against the King of Naples. When Archbishop Charles Bernard of Genoa died, in 1286, the metropolitan chapter of Genoa proposed Jacopo de Voragine as his successor. Upon his refusal to accept the dignity, Obizzo Fieschi, the Patriarch of Antioch whom the Saracens had driven from the see, was transferred to the archiepiscopal See of Genoa by Nicholas IV in 1288. When Obizzo Fieschi died, in 1292, the chapter of Genoa unanimously elected Jacopo de Voragine as his successor. His again endeavoured to evade the archiepiscopal dignity, but was finally obliged to yield to the combined prayers of the clergy, the Senate, and the people of Genoa. Nicholas IV wished to consecrate him bishop personally, and called him to Rome for that purpose; but shortly after the arrival of de Voragine the pope died, and the new bishop was consecrated at Rome during the succeeding interregnum, on 13 April, 1292. The episcopate of Jacopo de Voragine fell in a time when Genoa was a scene of continuous warfare between the Rampini and the Mascarati, the former of whom were Guelphs, the latter Ghibellines. The archbishop, indeed, effected an apparent reconciliation between the two hostile parties in 1295; but the dissensions broke out anew, and all his efforts to restore peace were useless. In 1292 he held a provincial synod at Genoa, chiefly for the purpose of identifying the relics of St. Syrus, one of the earliest bishops of Genoa (324?). The cult of Jacopo de Voragine, which seems to have begun soon after his death, was ratified by Pius VII in 1816. The same pope permitted the clergy of Genoa and Savona, and the whole Order of St. Dominic, to celebrate his feast as that of a saint. Jacopo de Voragine is best known as the author of a collection of legendary lives of the saints, which was entitled "Legenda Sanctorum" by the author, but soon became universally known as "Legenda Aurea" (Golden Legend), because the people of those times considered it worth its weight in gold. In some of the earlier editions it is styled "Lombardica Historia", which title gave rise to the false opinion that this was a different work from the "Golden Legend". The title "Lombardica Historia" originated in the fact that in the life of Pope Pelagius, which forms the second last chapter of the "Golden Legend", is contained an abstract of the history of the Lombards down to 1250 (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XXIV, 167 sq.). In the preface to the "Golden Legend" the author divides the ecclesiastical year into four periods, which he compared to four epochs in the history of the world, viz. a time of deviation, renovation, reconciliation, and pilgrimage. The body of the work, which contains 177 chapters (according to others, 182), is divided into five sections, viz. from Advent to Christmas, from Christmas to Septuagesima, from Septuagesima to Easter, from Easter to Octave of Pentecost, and from the Octave of Pentecost to Advent. If we are to judge the "Golden Legend" from an historical standpoint, we must condemn it as entirely uncritical and hence of no value, except in so far as it teaches us that the people of those times were an extremely naive and thoroughly religious people, permeated with an unshakable belief in God's omnipotence and His fatherly care for those who lead a saintly life. If, on the other hand, we view the "Golden Legend" as an artistically composed book of devotion, we must admit that it is a complete success. It is admirably adapted to enhance our love and respect towards God, to foster our devotion towards His saints, and to animate us with a holy zeal to follow their example. The chief object of Jacopo de Voragine and of other medieval hagiologists was not to compose reliable biographies or to write scientific treatises for the learned, but to write books of devotion that were adapted to the simple manners of the common people. It is due to a wrong conception of the purpose of the "Golden Legend" that Luis Vives (De causis corruptarum artium, c. ii), Melchior Canus (De locis theologicis, xi, 6), and others have severely denounced it; and to a true conception that the Bollandists (Acts SS., January, I, 19) and many recent hagiologists have highly praised it. That the work made a deep impression on the people is evident from its immense popularity, and from the great influence it had on the prose and poetic literature of many nations. It became the basis of many passionals of the Middle Ages and religious poems of later times. Longfellow's "Golden Legend", which, with two other poems, forms the trilogy entitled "Christus", owes its name and many of its ideas to the "Golden Legend" of de Voragine. “ [Catholic Encyclopedia]First printed in Basel in 1470, two years after our manuscript, the Golden Legend was a medieval ‘best seller,” so that by 1500 at least 74 Latin editions had been published as well as three translations into English, five in French, eight Italian, fourteen Low German, and three Bohemian.