Parergon

The Gilte Legende is a ME translation, with some interesting additions, of Jean de Vignay’s French version of the huge, and hugely popular, Latin collection of saints’ lives, the Legenda Aurea (c. 1265). According to the colophon in one manuscript, it was made in 1438 by ‘a sinful wretch’ (p. 2). Richard Hamer, with the assistance of Vida Russell, published an edition of the text itself in two volumes that appeared in 2006 and 2007, with no editorial matter at all except for minimal notes in the first on editorial procedures. As so often with EETS editions of very lengthy texts, the most interesting material – a substantial introduction, notes, and glossary – appears last (if it appears at all). A poor marketing strategy, perhaps.

The Introduction describes in detail the eight complete manuscript witnesses (plus a surprisingly large number of fragments), tabulates which vitae occur in which manuscripts, and discusses the manuscript affiliations. It goes on to consider the various chapters that have been added to the French source or appear in modified form (particularly, lives of Malchus, Alban, John the Baptist, and Catherine of Alexandria). This is of especial interest as it may relate to the identity of the translator, more so than the brief discussion of the language, which is simply ‘typical of the south midlands, and the region around London’ (p. 46). The final sections of the Introduction contain a description of the translation’s characteristics, and some intriguing speculation about the translator’s identity. Hamer considers it likely that the translation was made by a woman, and cautiously suggests Dame Eleanor Hull, who already has a track record as a translator: this hypothesis is ‘presented as a possibility, but in view of the lack of solid evidence, no more’ (p. 56).

The bulk of the volume is made up of very extensive notes. These ‘consist largely of a record of changes to the text from its French and Latin sources’ (p. 65) and are therefore vital to any assessment of the text as translation. Finally, the thorough glossary (sixty-five double-column pages) reminds us that the EETS remains true to its original raison-d’être to be a lexicological resource. [End Page 186]