JACOBUS DE VORAGINE, (C. 1230-1298), archbishop of Genoa, is said to have been born at the little village of Varaggio, near Savona, about the year 1230. He entered the order of St Dominic in 1244, and is said to have preached with great success in many parts of Italy, as well as to have taught in the schools of his own fraternity. From the office of prior in 1267 he was raised to be provincial of all Lombardy. This post he held till 1286, when he was removed at the meeting of the order in Paris. He also represented his own province at the councils of Lucca (1288) and Ferrara (1290). On the last occasion he was one of the four delegates charged with signifying Nicholas IV.'s desire for the deposition of Munio de Zamora, who had been master of the order from 1285, and was deprived of his office by a papal bull dated April 12, 1291. In 12S8 Nicholas empowered him to absolve the people of Genoa for their offence in aiding the Sicilians against Charles II. Early in 1292 the same pope, himself a Franciscan, summoned James to Bome, intending to con-secrate him archbishop of Genoa with his own hands. James reached Bome on Palm Sunday (March 30), but only to find his patron ill of a deadly sickness, from which he died on Good Friday (April 4). The cardinals, however, "propter bonorem Communis Januse," determined to carry out this consecration on the Sunday after Easter, and thus, to quote his own words, "he returned with joy to his own city, and was reverently received by the \ people." If we may trust Echard, he was a model bishop, and especially distinguished himself by his efforts to i appease the civil discords of Genoa. His death seems to have taken place in June 1298. He was buried in the Dominican church at Genoa. A story, mentioned by Echard as unworthy of credit, makes Boniface VIII., on the first day of Lent, cast the ashes in the archbishop's eyes instead of on his head, with the words, " Remember


that thou art a Ghibelline, and with thy fellow Ghibellines wilt return to naught."
Jacobus de Vorágine has left us a list of his own works. Speak-ing of himself in his Chronicon Januense, he says, "While he was in his order, and after he had been made archbishop, he wrote many works. For he compiled the legends of the saints (Legendie Sanctorum) in one volume, adding many things from the Historia Tripartita et Scholastica, and from the chronicles of many writers." The other writings he claims are two volumes of "Sermons con-cerning all the Saints " whose yearly feasts the church celebrates. Of these volumes, he adds, one is very diffuse, but the other short and concise. Then follow Sermones de Omnibus Evangeliis Domi-nicalibus for every Sunday in the year ; Sermones de Omnibus Evangeliis, i.e., a book of discourses on all the Gospels, from Ash Wednesday to the Tuesday after Easter ; and a treatise called "Marialis, qui totus est de B. Maria composite," consisting of about 160 discourses on the attributes, titles, &c, of the Virgin Mary. In the same work the archbishop claims to have written his Chronicon Januense in the second year of his pontificate (1293), but it extends to 1296 or 1297. To this list Echard adds several other works, such as a defence of the Dominicans, printed at Venice in 1504, and a Summa Virtutum et Vitiorum Guillelmi Peraldi, a Dominican who died about 1250. James is also said to have translated the Old and New Testaments into his own tongue. "But," adds Echard, "if he did so, the version lies so closely hid that there is no recollection of it."
His two chief works are the Chronicon Januense and the Golden Legend or Lombardica Hystoria. The former is partly printed in Muratori (Seriptores Iter. Ital., ix. 6). It is divided into twelve parts. The first four deal with the mythical history of Genoa from the time of its founder, Janus the first king of Italy, and its enlarger, a second Janus, "citizen of Troy," till its conversion to Christianity '' about twenty-five years after the passion of Christ." Part v. professes to treat of the beginning, the growth, and the perfection of the city; but of the first period the writer candidly confesses he knows nothing except by hearsay. The second period includes the Genoese crusading exploits in the East, and extends to their victory over the Pisans (c. 1130), while the third reaches down to the days of the author's archbishopric. The sixth part deals with the constitution of the city, the seventh and eighth with the duties of rulers and citizens, the ninth with those of domestic life. The tenth gives the ecclesiastical history of Genoa from the time of its first known bishop, St Valentine, "whom we believe to have lived about 530 A.D.," till 1133, when the city was raised to archiepiscopal rank. The eleventh contains the lives of all the bishops in order, and includes the chief events during their pontificates ; while the twelfth deals in the same way with the archbishops, not forgetting the writer himself.-
The Golden Legend, one of the most popular religious works of the Middle Ages, is a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the mediaeval church. The preface divides the ecclesias-tical year into four periods corresponding to the various epochs of the world's history, a time of deviation, of renovation, of reconciliation, and of pilgrimage. The book itself, however, falls into five sections:—(a) from Advent to Christmas (cc. 1-5); (b) from Christmas to Septuagésima (6—30); (c) from Septuagésima to Easter (31-53); {d) from Easter Day to the octave of Pentecost (54-76); (e) from the octave of Pentecost to Advent (77-180). The saints' lives are full of puerile legend, and in not a few cases contain accounts of 13th-century miracles wrought at special places, par-ticularly with reference to the Dominicans. The author is very particular in giving the derivation of proper names, and indeed generally supplies a copious choice of alternatives. He is nearly always careful to assign a yearly date to the saints he treats of, but seldom, if ever, mentions their feast days. As he reaches the great seasons of the year he inserts treatises dealing witli their signi-ficance and interpretation. These we have for Advent, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Whitsunday, &c. The last chapter but one (181) "De Sancto Pelagio Papa," contains a kind of history of the world from the middle of the 6th century; while the last (182) is a somewhat allegorical disquisition, " De Dedicatione Ecelesia;."
The Golden Legend was translated into French by Jean Belet de Vigny in the 14th century. It was also one of the earliest books to issue from the press. A Latin edition is assigned to about 1469; and a dated one was published at Lyons in 1473. Many other Latin editions were printed before the end of the century. A French translation by Master John Bataillier is dated 1476; Jean de Vigny's appeared at Paris, 1488; an Italian one by Nic. Manerbi (? Venice, 1475); a Siohemian one at Pilsen, 1475-9, and at Prague. 149.5; Caxton's English versions, 1483, 1487, and 1493; and a German one in 1489. Several 15th-century editions _of the Sermons are also known, and the Mariale was printed at Venice in 1197 and at Paris in 1503.


Footnote

Printed without name or place, 1484.