Heading: (Bible - Early English)
Author: Voragine, Jacobus de
Title: The Golden Legend [Legenda Aurea]
Place Published: London
Publisher:Wynkyn de Worde for Richard Pynson
Date Published: 4 September 1507
Description:

CCClxxxxiiii [i.e. 403], [1] leaves (lacking frontispiece [A1] & a bifolium at the end [2E1 & 2E6]; all 3 leaves supplied in expert facsimile). a-x⸠yⶠz⸠A-Zâ¸; ²A-D⸠Eâ¶. Translated by William Caxton. Illustrated with over 200 woodcuts (some of them repeating), depicting saints and biblical scenes; numerous woodcut initials. 26.4x18.9 cm (10½x7½"), early 20th century speckled calf, spine tooled in gilt, raised bands, morocco lettering piece, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. ESTC S95710 (= old STC 24878.5).

Exceptionally rare 1507 English printing of Voragine's Golden Legend, containing Caxton's pre-Tyndale translation of major portions of the Bible. A popularized recounting of the lives of the Saints (mingling fact with fiction), The Golden Legend has been called "the most widely read book of the Middle Ages," and it was certainly the most frequently published work during the first 50 years of English printing. Caxton had a keen understanding of the interests of the literate public, and he both supplemented Voragine's original Latin text with the lives of English Saints and also additionally translated substantial portions of the Bible. Caxton not only provided an extensive life of Christ extracted from the Vulgate text of the New Testament, he also translated the most engaging and familiar narratives of the Old Testament from Genesis to the Book of Kings: we here find recounted the story of Creation, the Garden of Eden, the Exodus from Egypt, the giving (and listing) of the Ten Commandments, the building of Solomon's Temple, and the parable of Job, together with other narratives. The great publishing success of Caxton's Golden Legend can in significant measure be attributed to the distinctive fact that in the decades preceding the printing of Tyndale's New Testament (1525), Caxton's book was essentially the sole printed source in English for the Bible's text.



Though Caxton's Golden Legend went through 10 distinct English editions by 1527, very few pre-1527 copies of the book have actually survived to the present day. STC in fact cites only 75 extant copies in total of the 10 earliest editions (pre-1527) - the majority of them imperfect -- suggesting that the book was literally read to pieces by the English public. The remarkable fact that Caxton's Golden Legend went unpublished for more than 350 years after the 1527 edition -- until the Kelmscott Press edition of 1892 -- is most probably explained by the fact that Tyndale's translation of the New Testament began to be translated in 1525.



The present book is exceptional among early printed copies of the text both for its degree of completeness and for the integrality of its text block. Indeed only one other early copy offered for sale in the past 50 years could be said to rival it (a copy of Caxton's 1483 first edition of the text sold in 2002, lacking one text leaf and two blanks, but with some 8 other leaves apparently supplied). The offered book is in fact one of only 2 known copies of this 1507 imprint, and is by definition "of the greatest rarity" in commerce. Combining the masterful talents of the three greatest early English printers - William Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Richard Pynson - this exceptionally rare 1507 edition of the text is not only a handsome and well-made book, it is also a delight to read.



Published some 40 years in advance of Tyndale's first Bible translation (1525), and marking Caxton's greatest achievement as a translator and editor, Caxton's Golden Legend stands as one of the supreme texts of early English printing.

*8Amendment* The imprint, page count and collation have been corrected. Please see the online catalogue entry**Some gentle rubbing to the joints and spine ribs; some light occasional waterstain to lower fore-edge margin, with some minor worming to upper outer corner of final leaves. A Fine and Solid Copy.