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This is volume II of the first scholarly edition of the Golden Legend, the largest and most elaborate production of the first printer in English, William Caxton.
List of contents
- Corrigenda of Volume 1 and Additions to Bibliography
- List of Illustrations
- List of Sigla
- Abbreviations
- Caxton's Golden Legend
- 1: Adam
- 2: Noe
- 3: Abraham
- 4: Isaac
- 5: Joseph
- 6: Moses
- 7: Ten Commandments
- 8: Joshua
- 9: Saul
- 10: David
- 11: Solomon
- 12: Rehoboam
- 13: Job
- 14: Tobias
- 15: Judith
- Explanatory Notes
- Glossary
- Index of Proper Names
About the author
^bMayumi Taguchi^b is a Professor at Osaka Sangyo University; she has been involved with several editorial projects on late medieval devotional texts.
^bJohn Scahill^b was formerly a Professor of English at Keio University, Tokyo.
^bSatoko Tokunaga^b is Associate Professor of English at Keio University and the Hon. Secretary for Japan of the Bibliographical Society.
Summary
This is volume II of the first scholarly edition of the Golden Legend, the largest and most elaborate production of the first printer in English, William Caxton. It is an English translation of Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea (ca. 1267), a collection of legends for the feasts of saints (the Sanctorale) and other major days of the liturgical year (the Temporale). The Legenda aurea was one of the most popular and influential books in the later medieval Western world; it circulated widely, and was repeatedly translated into many vernacular languages.
This second volume contains Caxton's most notable addition: a series of Old Testament legends, from Adam to Judith; it contains its own explanatory notes, glossary, and Index of Proper Names. It reproduces Caxton's original text with modern punctuation and capitalization, notes on content, syntax and lexis, a detailed glossary and an index of proper names. The notes provide detailed support for the view that Caxton's text is largely based on the work of an earlier unknown writer in English. They also demonstrate that writer's strikingly independent handling of a variety of sources, including the Latin Vulgate Bible, the Historia scholastica, the French Bible historiale, and the English Cursor mundi and the Wycliffite translation of the Bible.
