Description
Book SynopsisDepicting the lives of the saints in an array of both factual and fictional stories - some preposterous, some profound, and some shocking - "The Golden Legend" was perhaps the most widely read book, after the Bible, during the late Middle Ages. This title presents an English translation of the complete text.
Trade Review"[The Golden Legend] came to serve as the literary equivalent of wall-paintings and stained glass... For the translation of the work in its entirety into English we have had to wait 700 years for the energy and learning of a distinguished American academic, William Granger Ryan."--Gerard Irvine, The Times Literary Supplement "Art historians depend on it. Medievalists should know it inside-out... [F]or the rest of us it remains a treasure-house of European culture, crammed full of the things which everyone, once upon a time, used to know."--Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph "A labor of love, as well as a product of great erudition. The translation is a complete, thoughtful, and judicious one."--Thomas Head, The Catholic Historical Review "An unequaled source book for the study of the art and literature of the high Middle Ages... [de Voragine] showed himself to be a narrative artist of the first rank, and in Ryan's fine English version we have a splendid volume that can take its place somewhere between Butler's Lives of the Saints and Aesop's Fables."--George Sim Johnston, The New Criterion "To the labor of Father Ryan, whose stylish translation now affords us the means [to eye Voragine's purpose and method], we owe an enormous debt."--Brian Masters, Literary Review
