Synopses & Reviews
Gilte Legende is mostly a close translation "drawen out of Frensshe into Englisshe" in 1438, of Jean de Vignay's Légende Dorée of about 1333-40, itself a close translation of Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda Aurea, completed about 1267. Of its eight surviving manuscripts, three contain additions, mostly of Lives of saints from or related to Britain, many of them deversified from the South English Legendary, but with some use of other sources. The twenty-six lives include Thomas Becket, Edmund of Abingdon, Frideswide, Edward the Confessor, Erkenwald, Augustine of Canterbury, Brendan, and Winifred. Also edited are an incomplete tract on "What the church betokenith," explaining some of the symbolism of the church and its services; and another detailing what indulgences were available to pilgrims in each of the churches in Rome.
Review
"Both [this edition and Zettersten, The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle (OUP 2000)] are meticulously executed and handsomely produced. As the more compendious of the two, Hamer and Russell's edition deserves added praise for its exemplary scholarship, even by the standards of this distinguished series."--Manuscripta
Synopsis
Gilte Legende is mostly a close translation drawen out of Frensshe into Englisshe' in 1438, of Jean de Vignay's L gende Dor e of about 1333-4, itself a close translation of Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda Aurea, completed about 1267. Of its eight surviving manuscripts, three contain additions, mostly of Lives of saints from or related to Britain, many of them deversified from the South English Legendary, but with some use of other sources. The twenty-six lives include Thomas Becket, Edmund of Abingdon, Frideswide, Edward the Confessor, Erkenwald, Augustine of Canterbury, Brendan, and Winifred, and from further afield Faith, Barbara, and Jerome. Almost all the texts were previously unpublished. Also edited are an incomplete tract on What the church betokenith', explaining some of the symbolism of the church and its services; and another detailing what indulgences were available to pilgrims in each of the churches in Rome.