[THE Legende Named in Latyn Legeda Aurea that is to saye in Englysshe the Golden Legende (Translated by William Caxton)]

VERY RARE EARLY PRINTING BY WYNKEN DE WORDE. A copy with pleasing provenance. Black letter, 46 lines double column, with numerous woodcuts throughout the text, some of which repeated, and with engraved initials. Folio (288 x 190 mm), in very fine full dark maroon levant morocco signed "C. McL., 1917", with de Worde's printer's device in gilt in the center of both boards, the spine lettered in gilt and with thick, tall raised bands, board edges and turn-ins gilt ruled, a.e.g., from the library of Wilfred Merton with his book label on front paste-down. 417 of 438 leaves, lacking only ff. i-viii (1st foliation, lxxxviii, ccxx-ccxxi, ccclxviiii, ccclxxvi-ccclxxxiiii (final foliation), which includes the title, the full-page woodcut at the front, and the woodcut printer's device at the end. In an especially fine state of preservation, with an early owner's occasional underlining or marginal notations and the censoring of the words "pope" and "mass" each time they appear in the text, cxxxvi remargined with loss of a few words; clxiiii remargined; clxxxi torn with a few letters of text lost; tear repaired in clxxxxvi without loss.

Edizione: very early printing of one of the most widely read books of the middle ages, the golden legend was translated by william caxton—his largest and most complex work of translation—and was originally printed by him in 1483, going through seven full and one partial editions by 1527. <br> the famous medieval manual of ecclesiastical lore and one of the most widely read books of middle ages, consisting of the lives of the saints, commentary on the church service, homilies of saints' days, etc. the chief source for william caxton's translation is the legenda aurea of jacobus de voragine (1230-98), archbishop of genoa. the original edition of voragine's work appeared in 1472, followed by scores of others. caxton's edition, the first in english, initially appeared in 1483 and proved his most popular production. wynkyn de worde was caxton's successor and first published the work in 1493. the work was held in an almost sacred light, so that when the scholar claude espence dared to criticize it in 1555 by calling it the "legenda ferrea" he was obliged to publicly retract. caxton first published this translation in 1483 and warde, who had served as his apprentice, republished it in 1498. <br> caxton's translation came from the french of jean de vignay, according to herbert, though the harl. catalogue says that "the volume is not a translation from any one author; but from a latin, french and english work which caxton had by him at the time." caxton as an homme de lettres has been eclipsed by his fame as a printer but as a translator he was instrumental in fixing the literary language of england of the beginning of the 16c. in this work caxton was an impressionist. eschewing literalism he provided fluent, readable, idiomatic texts which rarely remind the reader they are not in fact original english compositions. worde inherited caxton's woodblocks and other materials on caxton's death and used them in his early editions of the golden legend with many additions of his own. this edition is worde’s sixth and last and is abundantly illustrated in a similar fashion to his edition of 1507 and 1521 (of which no complete copies have saved). "his skill in the art of printing is much to be admired.; for although he was the immediate successor of caxton, yet he improved the art to a very great degree." "a printer of very considerable taste, and of infinitely more skilled than his predecessor."(herbert). <br> in this copy the words pope and mass have been systematically inked over, sometimes with "devil" written in replacement, and one of the woodcuts has been altered with the papal crown of st. gregory replaced with a bishops mitre. this protestant zeal might be the cause of the missing leaves. no english editions of the golden legend were published after the reformation and very many of the copies that survive are incomplete. an extremely rare survival the present edition here offered is considered rare and is a prize of collectors. <br><br>stc 24880. lowndes vii 2795. ames 11108.<br><br>provenance: wilfred merton (1889-1957) collector of greek papryri.