medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Ann,
As you probably know, one definition of the word "camel" is: "a horse designed by a committee". At the risk of giving your very serviceable paragraph a metaphorical hump or two, let me suggest that you delete the word "the" at the following places:
a large collection of stories of the saints.
the legendary lives
of the great medieval saints
the lives of Christ,...
The reason for this is to avoid giving the incorrect impression that the LA covers _all_ the saints, or even all the "great medieval saints" (it doesn't), or that it purveys the _only_ legendary lives of these saints and the only lives of Christ, the BVM, etc. that circulated in the Middle Ages. Even though these limitations are obviously not your intent, some will interpret the definite article in this restrictive fashion. So it's better just to omit the article and to say "stories of saints", "lives of Christ", etc.
Two smaller points:
1) For "It was first published" say "It was first printed". "Publishing" is "making public" (usually through the production of multiple copies). Distribution in manuscript copies is thus also a form of publishing and in this case that obviously happened sooner.
2) For "of Voragine’s work" it would be better to say "of de Voragine's" work. "Voragine" is a Latin form of a place name (J.'s town of origin, today's Varazze near Genoa). As used in J.'s case, it's analogous to the "Vinci" in "Leonardo da Vinci".
Best,
John Dillon
On Sunday, January 21, 2007, at 8:00 am, Ann Ball wrote:
> I wanted an introductory paragraph to something on the life of the
> Virgin as
> found in the Golden Legend. I wrote it as below, but it occurs to me
> to ask
> if any of you think I have put anything inaccurate or misleading.
> Thanks.
> Ann
>
> The Blessed Dominican, Jacobus de Voragine, was born about 1230 near
> today’s
> Genoa, Italy. He joined the Dominicans at age 14. A teacher and
> noted
> preacher, he was named archbishop of Genoa in 1292. He was especially
> known for
> his piety and great charity, and was beatified in 1816 by Pope Pius
> VII.
> During his lifetime, he compiled the Legenda Aurea Sanctorum, The
> Golden Legend,
> which is a large collection of stories of the saints. The book,
> which
> contains the legendary lives of the great medieval saints also
> contains the lives
> of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other biblical characters. Some 900
> manuscripts of the Legend survive. It was first published in the late
> 1400s and is a
> classic of medieval literature. Numerous translations of Voragine’s
> work
> have been made. The first English translation by William Caxton
> appeared in the
> early years of the 1480s and other translations are still in print today.
>
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