The University of Wisconsin Press
Literature and Criticism
The Legenda Aurea
A Reexamination of Its Paradoxical History
Sherry L. Reames
In the thirteenth century a young Dominican friar, Jacobus de Voragine, compiled the book that came to be known as the Legenda aurea, a collection of medieval lore about the saints and holidays of the church. Through the centuries this noted book has had a conspicuously uneven reputation: enormous popularity in the late Middle Ages, a precipitous decline during the Renaissance, and a gradual rehabilitation in the modern era. Sherry L. Reames’s study of the Legenda aurea offers the first comprehensive account of the book’s history and of the qualities that differentiate it from earlier and less controversial works about the saints. The fresh perspective introduced by this study will provide new insights and challenge old myths for historians, literary critics, theologians, and students concerned with medieval culture and hagiography.
Sherry L. Reames is professor emerita of English and Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her many publications include Middle English Legends of Women Saints.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at email@example.com or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
LC: 84-040502 BX
384 pp. 6 x 9
Cloth ISBN 978-0-299-10150-3
OUT OF PRINT
For rights and permissions inquiries, contact firstname.lastname@example.org.
Home | Books | Journals | Events | Textbooks | Authors | Related | Search | Order | Contact
If you have trouble accessing any page in this web site, contact our Web manager.
Updated 9/24/2014© 2010, The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System