178
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
" 7%yi hlessyd and holy martyr, taynt George, patrone nf tkys roiame of Englond, and the crye of men of warre, in the worship of whom is founded the noble ordre of the garter, and alto a noble college in the cattle nf Wyndetore, by kynges of England, in whiche it the herte of taynt George, whyche Sygytmnnd, the emperor of Al- mayn, brnughte and gafe for a grete and a pre- eiout reliqve to kyng tiarry the fyfthe ; and alto the layd Sygitnwnde wat a broder of the tayd garter; and alto there it a pyece of hit heed: which college it nobly endowed to thanoure and wonhyp ofalmyghty God, andhyt blestyd mar- tyr taynt George. Thenne lete ut praye unto hym, that he be special proteetour and defrndour of thyt royame. Thus endeth the lyf of taynt George. And folio ccclxxxxi. Thxu endeth the lyf of saynt Saturnine. Thys feste is the last fette of the yere, for to begynne at the feste of saynt Andrewe, and herafter shall foloice dyuers feettes, whiche been added and sette in thys tayd booh, called the Golden Legend.^
This work is printed in donble columns, con- tains 404 folios, and is, Mt. Dibdin observes, " without exception, one of the most elaborate, skilful, and magnificent specimens of printing which ever issued from Caxton's press. Jaco- bus de Voraigrne, Archbishop of Genoa,* first composed it in Latin, about 1260. In the sub- sequent century Jean de Vignay translated it into French, from which our typographer's translation was taken.
A second edition of the Golden Legend is said to have been printed soon after the other, with wood cuts, but without date.
A third edition was finished the 20th of May, 1483. Folio.
At the beginning and end of this work it is observed respecting the title, the Golden Le- gend; "for like as passeth gold in value all other metals, so this Legend exceedeth all other books." This work was translated at the re- quest of the earl of Arundel. The date of 1493 appears irreconcileable. Herbert remarks, " This is a knot I must acknowledge myself unable to untie, or reconcile with the iiceount of Mr. Cax- ton's death in 1493, as mentioned in Lewis's Life of Caxton." Mr. Dibdin believes the work to have been printed by William Caxton, and the colophon added by Wynkyn De Worde, who
- JacobI de Voralgne wu a native of the Genoese ter-
ritory; born abont 1230. Became proTincial of the onler of the Dominicans, and in 1299 archbishop of Oeroa. He has the character of a virtuous and zealous prelate : but Ilia Aurea Lffenda, abounds so much with fictions and absurdities, that perhaps from thence the term legmAtrx became sjrnonymous with fabulous. The ftrst edition is said to be that of Cologne UVO.—OrntwcU.
Legendary poetry was sometimes sung to the harp, by the minstrels, on Sundays, instead oJ the romantic sablects Dsnal at public entertainments. In the British mnseiim there is a set of legendary tales in rhyme, which appears to have been solemnly pronounced by the priest to the people on Sundays and holidays.— If orf on.
t Three itnperfect copies of the Ooldm Legoid are in the pnbUc libtafy at Cambridge, but the Rev. C. H. Harts- horae. in his acoonnt of the Book Raritia in Ike Vnlmir. ttlf of CamMdge, does not mention which of the three editions the above conslsta of.
affixed his master's name'out of respect to hit memory.
Mr. t)unlop observes that Le Tresor de VAmt is a work somewhat of the same description with the Legenda Aurea, and that it was composed or compiled nearly two hundred years before its first appearance from the press. It consists of a collection of histories ; but more frequently re- ports the miracles wrought by the posthumous intercession of saints, than the prodigies per- formed in the course of their lives. Tbe longest article contained in it is the account of St IV trick's purgatory; which is mentioned in the Legenda Aurea, but is here minutely described by a Spanish knight, who had been sent thithet to expiate his crimes. (Hist, of Fiction, vol. 3.
I have noticed the Legenda Aurea, (nibannii 1475, 1490, ami 1496,^ which does not consist solely of the biography of saints, but is inter- spersed with other strangle relations, probably extracted from the Getta Longobardonm, or other more obscure sources. I was inclioed, with Mr. Warton in one part of his History of Englith Poetry, to consider the Legenda Ayna of J. de Voraigne as the only source from which Caxton drew his Golden Legende.* But Mr. Warton afterwards says "this is not strictly true. Caxton informs us in his preface to the first edition, anni 1487, that he had in his pos- ses-sion a Legend in French, another in Latin, and a third in English, which varied from the other two in many places; and that many his- tories were contained in the English collection which did not occur in the French and Latin. ' Therefore' says he, ' J A«t«e wryUm one oule o( the tayd three booket, which J have ordereyd otherwyte than in the tayd Englysshe Legenie which was so to fore made.' " I have a species of Latin Legenda from the press of Joban de Westfalia, Lovanii, 1485, folio, unknown to Panzer. — Grcsswell.
Those ecclesiastical histories entitled Legends are said to have originated in the following cir- cumstance :
Before colleges were established in the monas- teries where the schools were held, the profes- sors in rhetoric frequently gave their pupils the life of some saint for a trial of their talent at amplification. The students, at a loss to fur- nish out their pages, invented most of these wonderful adventures. Jortin observes, that the Christians used out of Ovid, Livy, and other pagan poets and historians, the miracles and por-
- In 144}, Walter lord Hnngeiford beqneathed to lady
Margaret, wife of Sir Robert Hangoford, his ion, "my best Legend of the Lieu of the Saints, In Vtanch, and co- vered with red doth."— ATicAota.
A magnificent, and perhaps the original French nuno. script of this work was sold among the duplicates Mr. R. Heathcote's books in 1803 ; said to be "near MO years oU" and executed for the qnecn of ITiUlp de Valois. It is de. scribed as being " an immense folio volume, perhaps the most curious work of the kind in the wca-ld, every leaf of the finest vellum , all the capital letters JUominated with gold, and rich colours ; with upwards of two handled mi- niatures of the tlilTcrent saints, fcc." It was pniehased by the duke of Norfolk for £6<. A copy of the English ver- sion of the same work by Caxton was, December u, 1814, sold at Mr. Braaaey's sale for niaety-thiee guineas.
