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Legenda aurea, in English: The Golden Legend. Translated by William Caxton (c.1422-c.1491). [London: W. de Worde for R. Pynson, 4 September 1507].
Details
VORAGINE, Jacobus de (1230-1298)
Legenda aurea, in English: The Golden Legend. Translated by William Caxton (c.1422-c.1491). [London: W. de Worde for R. Pynson, 4 September 1507].
Exceedingly rare early English edition of The Golden Legend: one of only two known copies of a work which links three of the most important early English printers. Caxton’s translation, here printed by Wynkyn de Worde for Richard Pynson, is illustrated in this edition with a series of woodcuts of holy scenes and Biblical figures, several of which were previously used by Caxton in The myrroure of the blessyd lyf of Jhesu Cryste (1484, STC 3259). The Golden Legend represents Caxton's most extensive work of translation. He took as his sources the original Latin Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine, an expanded French version by Jehan de Vignay, and an expanded version of the anonymous Middle English translation of 1438, the Gilte Legende. He augmented these sources with material from Petrus Comestor's Historia scholastica, his own paraphrasing of Biblical stories, and even personal interjections, such as his having seen a painting on the altar of St Augustine at the Dominican convent at Antwerp depicting the miracle of the child by the seashore. STC 24878.5 (the present copy collates as per the Lambeth Palace copy (24878.5), but is miscatalogued by STC as 24878.3).
Folio (264 x 189mm). Numerous woodcut illustrations, initials (A1 and E1.6 [colophon] provided in facsimile from the Lambeth Palace copy, some worming, heavier at beginning and end, some dampstaining and thumbsoiling). Early 20th-century mottled calf with Kenyon arms to upper board, spine decoratively gilt, all edges gilt (a few light abrasions). Provenance: occasional early marginal annotations (some trimmed) – Lloyd Tyrell-Kenyon, 4th Baron Kenyon (1864–1927; booklabel; two autograph letters signed from noted book collector William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney, Didlington Hall, Norfolk, 7 December and 14 December 1902, discussing this volume).
Legenda aurea, in English: The Golden Legend. Translated by William Caxton (c.1422-c.1491). [London: W. de Worde for R. Pynson, 4 September 1507].
Exceedingly rare early English edition of The Golden Legend: one of only two known copies of a work which links three of the most important early English printers. Caxton’s translation, here printed by Wynkyn de Worde for Richard Pynson, is illustrated in this edition with a series of woodcuts of holy scenes and Biblical figures, several of which were previously used by Caxton in The myrroure of the blessyd lyf of Jhesu Cryste (1484, STC 3259). The Golden Legend represents Caxton's most extensive work of translation. He took as his sources the original Latin Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine, an expanded French version by Jehan de Vignay, and an expanded version of the anonymous Middle English translation of 1438, the Gilte Legende. He augmented these sources with material from Petrus Comestor's Historia scholastica, his own paraphrasing of Biblical stories, and even personal interjections, such as his having seen a painting on the altar of St Augustine at the Dominican convent at Antwerp depicting the miracle of the child by the seashore. STC 24878.5 (the present copy collates as per the Lambeth Palace copy (24878.5), but is miscatalogued by STC as 24878.3).
Folio (264 x 189mm). Numerous woodcut illustrations, initials (A1 and E1.6 [colophon] provided in facsimile from the Lambeth Palace copy, some worming, heavier at beginning and end, some dampstaining and thumbsoiling). Early 20th-century mottled calf with Kenyon arms to upper board, spine decoratively gilt, all edges gilt (a few light abrasions). Provenance: occasional early marginal annotations (some trimmed) – Lloyd Tyrell-Kenyon, 4th Baron Kenyon (1864–1927; booklabel; two autograph letters signed from noted book collector William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney, Didlington Hall, Norfolk, 7 December and 14 December 1902, discussing this volume).
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