Caxton's Golden Legend, Volume 3: The Sanctorale Part I

The third volume of the first scholarly edition of the Golden Legend (1483-4), the largest and most elaborate production by the first printer in English, William Caxton. It is an English version of the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1267), one of the most popular and influential books in the later medieval Western world. As well as the Latin original, Caxton drew on a version of Jean de Vignay's French translation (the Légende dorée) and an English rendering of the latter close to the Gilte Legende. The first two volumes of Caxton's Golden Legend (containing respectively the Temporale and the Old Testament legends) were edited by Mayumi Taguchi, John Scahill, and Satoko Tokunaga for EETS in 2020 and 2021. The latter two editors now present an edition of the final, largest section of the work, the Sanctorale - to which The History of the Mass, The Twelve Articles of Faith, and Caxton's colophon are appended. This volume reproduces Caxton's text of the first half of the Sanctorale with modern punctuation and capitalization. It is of particular interest in including quires that exist in two forms: the original setting, and a second setting which contains extensive differences that cast light on practices and conditions in early printing. Following this third volume, the fourth volume will complete the text, and the fifth volume will feature an introduction, explanatory notes, glossary, and index of proper names.