Special Dossier: DEATH – Reference Book: I - LA LÉGENDE DORÉE by Jacques de Voragine

The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275.

Historians interested in the "real lives" of individual saints value the earliest texts above all others. But for assessing the later cult of saints in Western Europe the Golden Legend achieved dominance in later western hagiographical literature - about 900 manuscripts of his Golden Legend survive. From 1470 to 1530 it was also the most often printed book in Europe.

Martyrs, saints, lots of tortures and bizarre and disgusting fairy tales, the usual catholic rubbish.