Editing Jacobus de Voragine

{{Short description|Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa (c. 1230–1298)}}
{{Distinguish|text=[[Jacobus de Boragine]], a glossator}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = [[Beatification|Blessed]]
|name= Jacobus de Voragine
|honorific_suffix = [[Dominican Order|OP]]
|birth_date={{circa|1230}}
|death_date=13 or 16 July 1298 or 1299 
|feast_day= [[13 July]]
|venerated_in= [[Roman Catholic Church]]
|image= PalazzoTrinci010 (cropped).jpg
|imagesize= 
|caption= Jacobus de Voragine with the ''[[Golden Legend]]'' in his hand,  fresco by [[Ottaviano Nelli]], chapel of [[Palazzo Trinci|Trinci Palace]], [[Foligno]], Italy
|birth_place= Varagine, [[Republic of Genoa]] (present-day [[Varazze]], Italy)
|death_place=[[Genoa]], [[Republic of Genoa]] (present-day Italy)
|titles= 
|beatified_date= 11 May 1816
|beatified_place=Genoa
|beatified_by= [[Pope Pius VII]]
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=  
|attributes=
|patronage=
|major_shrine= 
|suppressed_date=
|issues= 
}}

'''Jacobus de Voragine''',{{efn|His first name in Latin is ''Jacobus'', ''Iacobus'' or ''Iacopus'', while in Italian it is ''Jacopo'', ''Iacopo'' or ''Giacomo'', which in English is "James". In Latin his surname is ''de Voragine'' or ''de Varagine'', in Italian ''da Varagine'' or ''da Varazze''.<ref>{{citation |title=The Talents of Jacopo da Varagine: A Genoese Mind in Medieval Europe |author=Steven A. Epstein |url=https://archive.org/details/talentsofjacopod00epst |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2016}}, p. 1 n1.</ref><ref name=DBI>{{DBI|author=Carla Casagrande|title=Iacopo da Varazze|volume=62|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/iacopo-da-varazze_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/}}</ref> The surname is a family name, meaning "of Varazze". The spelling ''Voragine'' is a variant of ''Varagine'' and does not derive from [[:wikt:vorago|vorago]] (abyss), as sometimes claimed.<ref name=DBI/>}} [[Dominican Order|OP]] ({{circa|1230}}{{snd}}13/16 July 1298) was an Italian chronicler and [[archbishop of Genoa]]. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler, of the ''[[Golden Legend]]'', a collection of the legendary lives of the greater [[saint]]s of the medieval church that was one of the most popular religious works of the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Jacobus de Voragine|volume=15|page=121}}</ref>

==Biography==
Jacobus was born either in [[Varazze]]<ref>The [[toponym]] Varagine is Lombard; the site appears in the ''[[Tabula Peutingeriana]]'' as ''Ad Navalia''.</ref> or in [[Genoa]], where a family originally from Varazze and bearing that name is attested at the time.<ref name=DBI/> He entered the [[Dominican Order|Dominican order]] in 1244, and became the prior at [[Como]], [[Bologna]] and [[Asti]] in succession.<ref>Stace 1998:, "Introduction" p. x.</ref> Besides preaching with success in many parts of Italy, he also taught in the schools of his own fraternity. He was [[Provincial superior|provincial]] of [[Lombardy]] from 1267 till 1286, when he was removed at the meeting of the order in Paris. He also represented his own province at the councils of [[Lucca]] (1288) and [[Ferrara]] (1290). On the last occasion he was one of the four delegates charged with signifying [[Pope Nicholas IV]]'s desire for the deposition of [[Munio de Zamora]] – who had been master of the Dominican order from 1285 and was eventually deprived of his office by a [[papal bull]] dated 12 April 1291.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1288 Nicholas empowered him to absolve the people of Genoa for their offence in aiding the Sicilians against [[Charles II of Naples|Charles II]]. Early in 1292 the same pope, himself a [[Franciscan]], summoned Jacobus to Rome, intending to consecrate him archbishop of Genoa. Jacobus reached Rome on [[Palm Sunday]] (30 March), only to find his patron ill of a deadly sickness, from which he died on [[Good Friday]] (4 April). The cardinals, however, ''propter honorem Communis Januae'' ("for the honor of the commune of Genoa"), determined to carry out this consecration on the Sunday after Easter. He was a good bishop, and especially distinguished himself by his efforts to appease the civil discords of Genoa among [[Guelf]]s and [[Ghibelline]]s.<ref name=Ott>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08262b.htm Ott, Michael. "Blessed Jacopo de Voragine." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 17 July 2016</ref> A story, mentioned by Échard as unworthy of credit, makes [[Pope Boniface VIII]], on the first day of [[Lent]], cast the ashes in the archbishop's eyes instead of on his head, with the words, "Remember that thou art a Ghibelline, and with thy fellow Ghibellines wilt return to naught."<ref name="EB1911"/>

He died in 1298 or 1299, and was buried in the Dominican church at Genoa.<ref name="EB1911"/> He was beatified by [[Pius VII]] in 1816.<ref name=Ott/>

==Works==
[[File:Iacopo - Legenda aurea, nel MCCCCLXXXXIX adi V di decembre - 911150 2r.jpg|thumb|''Legenda aurea (1499)'']]
[[File:Archive-ugent-be-EC7485D0-16F8-11E2-A8D9-5A520D0ED9C1 DS-615 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|285x285px|Excerpt from the manuscript "Heiliglevens in het Middelnederlands". A fifteenth century copy from the second part of the [[Golden Legend|Legenda Aurea.]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Heiligenlevens in het Middelnederlands[manuscript]|url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:EC7485D0-16F8-11E2-A8D9-5A520D0ED9C1#?c=&m=&s=&cv=11&xywh=-889,-1,8166,4560|access-date=2020-08-26|website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]]
Jacobus de Voragine left a list of his own works. Speaking of himself in his ''Chronicon januense'', he says: "While he was in his order, and after he had been made archbishop, he wrote many works. For he compiled the legends of the saints ([[Golden Legend|''Legenda sanctorum'']]) in one volume, adding many things from the ''Historia tripartita et scholastica,'' and from the chronicles of many writers."<ref name="EB1911"/>

The other writings he claims are two anonymous volumes of ''Sermons concerning all the Saints'' whose yearly feasts the church celebrates. Of these volumes, he adds, one is very diffuse, but the other short and concise. Then follow ''Sermones de omnibus evangeliis dominicalibus'' for every Sunday in the year; ''Sermones de omnibus evangeliis,'' i.e., a book of discourses on all the [[Gospel]]s, from [[Ash Wednesday]] to the Tuesday after [[Easter]]; and a treatise called ''Marialis, qui totus est de B. Maria compositus,'' consisting of about 160 discourses on the attributes, titles, etc., of the [[Virgin Mary]]. In the same work the archbishop claims to have written his ''Chronicon januense'' in the second year of his episcopate (1293), but it extends to 1296 or 1297.<ref name="EB1911"/>

[[File:Sermones de sanctis.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of the 1497 edition of the ''Sermones de sanctis'' showing the author as a preacher, [[National Library of Poland]].]]

To Jacobus' own list his biographer Giovanni Monleone<ref>Monleone, ''Iacopo de Varagine e la sua Cronaca di Genova dalle origini al MCCXCVII'' (Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo) 1941.</ref> adds several other works, such as a defence of the Dominicans, printed at Venice in 1504, and a ''Summa virtutum et vitiorum [[William Perault|Guillelmi Peraldi]],'' a Dominican who died in 1271. Jacobus is also said by [[Sixtus of Siena]] (''Biblioth. Sacra,'' lib. ix) to have translated the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]s into his own tongue. "But," adds the historian of the Dominican order [[Jacques Échard]], "if he did so, the version lies so closely hid that there is no recollection of it," and it may be added that it is highly improbable that the man who compiled the ''Golden Legend'' ever conceived the necessity of having the Scriptures in the vernacular.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===The ''Golden Legend''===
{{Main|Golden Legend}}
The ''Golden Legend'', one of the most popular religious works of the [[Middle Ages]],<ref>[[Émile Mâle]], ''L'art religieuse du XIIIe siècle en France'' (1898) devotes a full chapter to ''Legenda Aurea'', which he avowed was his principal guide for the [[iconography]] of saints.</ref> is a collection of the legendary lives of the greater [[saint]]s of the medieval [[Roman Catholic Church|church]]. The preface divides the ecclesiastical year into four periods corresponding to the various [[historical period|epoch]]s of the [[world]]'s [[history]], a time of deviation, of renovation, of reconciliation and of pilgrimage. The book itself, however, falls into five sections: (a) from [[Advent]] to [[Christmas]] (cc. 1–5); (b) from Christmas to [[Septuagesima]] (6–30); (c) from Septuagesima to [[Easter]] (31–53); (d) from Easter Day to the [[octave (liturgical)|octave]] of [[Pentecost]] (54–76); (e) from the octave of Pentecost to Advent (77–180). The saints' lives are full of fanciful [[legend]], and in not a few cases contain accounts of 13th century [[miracle]]s wrought at special places, particularly with reference to the Dominicans. The penultimate chapter (181), "De Sancto Pelagio Papa", contains a universal history from the point of view of [[Lombardy]], or ''Historia Lombardica'' (History of Lombardy"), from the middle of the 6th century.<ref name=Ott/> The last (182) is a somewhat allegorical disquisition on the dedication of churches, "De dedicatione ecclesiae".<ref name="EB1911"/>

The ''Golden Legend'' was translated into [[Catalan language|Catalan]] in the 13th century and a first dated version was published in [[Barcelona]] in 1494. A [[French language|French]] version was made by [[Jean Belet de Vigny]] in the 14th century. A [[Latin language|Latin]] edition is assigned to about 1469; and a dated one was published at [[Lyon]] in 1473. Many other Latin editions were printed before the end of the century. A French translation by Master John Bataillier is dated 1476; Jean de Vigny's appeared at [[Paris]], 1488; an Italian one by Nic. Manerbi (?Venice, 1475); a [[Czech language|Czech]] one at [[Plzeň]], 1475–1479, and at [[Prague]], 1495; [[William Caxton|Caxton]]'s [[English language|English]] versions, 1483, 1487, and 1493; and a [[German language|German]] one in 1489.<ref name="EB1911"/> Overall, during the first five decades of printing in Europe, editions of the ''Legenda Aurea'' appeared at a rate of about two per year.

===''Sermones'' and ''Mariale''===
Almost as popular as the ''Legenda Aurea'' were Jacobus' collected sermons, also termed ''Aurei''. Several 15th-century editions of the ''Sermons'' are also known; while his ''Mariale'' was printed at Venice in 1497 and at Paris in 1503.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===''Chronicon januense''===
Jacobus' other chief work is his ''Chronicon januense'', a history of Genoa.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dotson |first=John |chapter=The Genoese Civic Annals: Caffaro and his continuations |editor1-last=Dale |editor1-first=Sharon |editor2-last=Lewin |editor2-first=Alison Williams |editor3-last=Osheim |editor3-first=Duane J. |title=Chronicling History: chroniclers and historians in medieval and Renaissance Italy |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park, Pa. |year=2007 |isbn=9780271032252 |pages=55–86 (70) }}</ref> It is divided into twelve parts. The first four deal with the mythical history of the city from the time of its founder, [[Janus (mythology)|Janus]], called the first king of Italy, and its enlarger, a second Janus, "citizen of [[Troy]]", till its conversion to [[Christianity]] "about twenty-five years after the passion of [[Christ]]". The fifth part professes to treat of the beginning, growth and perfection of the city; but of the first period the writer candidly confesses he knows nothing except by hearsay. The second period includes the Genoese crusading exploits in the East, and extends to their victory over the [[Pisa]]ns (c. 1130), while the third reaches down to the author's days as [[archbishop]]. The sixth part deals with the [[constitution]] of the city, the seventh and eighth with the [[Duty|duties]] of [[Monarch|ruler]]s and [[citizen]]s, the ninth with those of domestic life. The tenth gives the ecclesiastical history of Genoa from the time of its first known [[bishop]], [[Saint Valentine]], "whom we believe to have lived about 530 [[Anno Domini|A.D.]]", until 1133, when the city was raised to archiepiscopal rank. The eleventh contains the lives of all the bishops in order, and includes the chief events during their episcopates; the twelfth deals in the same way with the archbishops, not forgetting the writer himself.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Marian views==
Jacobus is relevant to [[mariology]] in light of his numerous Marian sermons, ''Sermones de sanctis per circulum anni feliciter''  and his ''Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis''.  He describes the miracles of Mary and explains specific local customs and usages on Marian feast days. Since most of these usages do not exist anymore, Jacobus de Varagine serves as a valuable source for the study of medieval Marian customs. Theologically Jacobus is one of the first of several Christian writers,  who view Mary as [[mediatrix]] or mediator between God and humanity. In his view of the mystical body of Christ, she is the ''neck'' through which ''all'' graces flow from Christ to his body.<ref>Bäumer, Marienlexikon Eos St. Ottilien, 1992 489</ref> This view was later shared by others such as [[Bernardino of Siena]], and, most recently, by one of the noted mariologists of the 20th century, [[Gabriel Roschini]].

==Editions==
{{Incomplete list|date=March 2022}}
* Iacopo da Varazze, ''Legenda aurea'' G. P. Maggioni (ed.), Firenze, 1998.
* Ryan, William G., ed. ''The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints.'' [https://www.amazon.com/The-Golden-Legend-Readings-Saints/dp/0691001537 Volume 1] and [https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Legend-II-Jacobus-Voragine/dp/0691031789 volume 2.] Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1993.
* {{cite book | author = Pieter van Os | author-link = Pieter van Os | url = https://archive.org/details/legendaaureasanc00jaco_5/page/n433 | title = Legenda aurea sanctorum, sive Lombardica historia | language = la,de | date = September 1, 1490 | volume = II | via = [[Internet Archive|archive.org]] | archive-url = https://archive.today/20190323130359/https://archive.org/stream/legendaaureasanc00jaco_5/legendaaureasanc00jaco_5_djvu.txt | archive-date = March 23, 2019 | url-status = live | access-date = March 23, 2019 }}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299131/Jacobus-de-Voragine "Jacobus De Voragine"], ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''
* Reames, Sherry L. ''The Legenda Aurea: A Reexamination of Its Paradoxical History'' (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press) 1985.
*{{cite book |author-link=Ernest Cushing Richardson |first=Ernest Cushing |last=Richardson |title=Materials for a Life of Jacopo de Varagine |publisher=H. W. Wilson Company |year=1935}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource|Jacobus de Varagine}}
{{Commons category|Jacopo da Varazze}}
* {{Librivox author |id=13744}}
* [http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc06/htm/iii.lv.xxv.htm Christian classics Ethereal Library]: brief biography
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_199.html Lewis E 199 Legenda aurea (Golden Legend) at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0028/html/ms_1174_014.html MS 1174/14 Sermones quadragesimales at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0012/html/lcp_ms20.html 20 Jacobus de Voragine: Sermones etc. at OPenn]
* [http://www.sermones.net/ Sermones.net – édition électronique d'un corpus de sermons latins médiévaux] : academic website, with an electronic annotated edition of the model sermons collections composed by Jacobus de Voragine (the first collection published is the ''Sermones Quadragesimales'', 98 texts). Also offers an extensive biography and bibliography on the author.
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Blessed Jacopo de Voragine|author=Michael Ott}}
*[http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rosenwald.0085.1 ''Das Passional, oder Der Heiligen Leben durch das gantz Iar'']. Reutlingen [Johann Otmar] 12 Mar. (Dienstag nach Oculi) [14]82. From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division] at the [[Library of Congress]]

{{Dominican Order}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voragine, Jacobus da}}
[[Category:1230 births]]
[[Category:1298 deaths]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Savona]]
[[Category:Christian hagiographers]]
[[Category:Italian beatified people]]
[[Category:Italian Dominicans]]
[[Category:13th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic archbishops of Genoa]]
[[Category:Catholic Mariology]]
[[Category:13th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians]]
[[Category:13th-century venerated Christians]]
[[Category:13th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Beatifications by Pope Pius VII]]