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The Medieval Church · c. 1260–1275
The Golden Legend
Legenda Aurea
Jacobus de Voragine · c. 1230–1298
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What it is
Saints' lives for the whole year with etymologies of each name, told with relish and no anxiety about plausibility — dragons, resurrections, and improbable escapes included.
Why it lasted
After the Bible the most widely read book of the later Middle Ages, and the source for most of the saints depicted in European art.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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