William Granger Ryan, a priest of the diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, is President Emeritus of Seton Hill College and a research scholar at the Institute of Sacred Music, Worship, and the Arts, Yale University. This new translation of The Golden Legend (Ryan translated portions of the work in a volume published in 1941) is the first complete rendering of the Graesse edition in English.

"[The Golden Legend] came to serve as the literary equivalent of wall-paintings and stained glass... For the translation of the work in its entirety into English we have had to wait 700 years for the energy and learning of a distinguished American academic, William Granger Ryan."--Gerard Irvine, The Times Literary Supplement "Art historians depend on it. Medievalists should know it inside-out... [F]or the rest of us it remains a treasure-house of European culture, crammed full of the things which everyone, once upon a time, used to know."--Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph "A labor of love, as well as a product of great erudition. The translation is a complete, thoughtful, and judicious one."--Thomas Head, The Catholic Historical Review "An unequaled source book for the study of the art and literature of the high Middle Ages... [de Voragine] showed himself to be a narrative artist of the first rank, and in Ryan's fine English version we have a splendid volume that can take its place somewhere between Butler's Lives of the Saints and Aesop's Fables."--George Sim Johnston, The New Criterion "To the labor of Father Ryan, whose stylish translation now affords us the means [to eye Voragine's purpose and method], we owe an enormous debt."--Brian Masters, Literary Review

William Granger Ryan, a priest of the diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, is President Emeritus of Seton Hill College and a research scholar at the Institute of Sacred Music, Worship, and the Arts, Yale University. This new translation of The Golden Legend (Ryan translated portions of the work in a volume published in 1941) is the first complete rendering of the Graesse edition in English.

"[The Golden Legend] came to serve as the literary equivalent of wall-paintings and stained glass... For the translation of the work in its entirety into English we have had to wait 700 years for the energy and learning of a distinguished American academic, William Granger Ryan."--Gerard Irvine, The Times Literary Supplement "Art historians depend on it. Medievalists should know it inside-out... [F]or the rest of us it remains a treasure-house of European culture, crammed full of the things which everyone, once upon a time, used to know."--Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph "A labor of love, as well as a product of great erudition. The translation is a complete, thoughtful, and judicious one."--Thomas Head, The Catholic Historical Review "An unequaled source book for the study of the art and literature of the high Middle Ages... [de Voragine] showed himself to be a narrative artist of the first rank, and in Ryan's fine English version we have a splendid volume that can take its place somewhere between Butler's Lives of the Saints and Aesop's Fables."--George Sim Johnston, The New Criterion "To the labor of Father Ryan, whose stylish translation now affords us the means [to eye Voragine's purpose and method], we owe an enormous debt."--Brian Masters, Literary Review