The Golden Legend is Jacobus de Voragine's thirteenth century compilation of saints' lives, the single most influential source for how medieval and later European art and devotion pictured its saints, including the martyrdom of Bartholomew by flaying that recurs across centuries of religious painting. This is the standard modern scholarly translation, published by Princeton University Press, which is the correct edition to cite for what the Legend actually says rather than a paraphrase drawn from a later retelling. Its authority as a primary source is direct, it is the text itself in careful translation. Its limit is exactly what any medieval hagiography carries, Voragine was compiling and elaborating existing legend for devotional and homiletic use, not writing verified history, so a claim about a saint's actual historical life needs an independent historical source rather than the Legend alone.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Jacobus de Voragine's thirteenth-century compilation of saints' lives, which fixed the martyrdom traditions, including Bartholomew's flaying, for later European art. Read here in a Princeton University Press scholarly critical translation, the same class of university-press critical translation this corpus already keeps at tier one for its other primary texts, such as the Codex Chimalpopoca from the University of Arizona Press, so it moves here from tier two to match. A medieval compiler's own devotional retelling, not independent historical verification of the martyrdoms it narrates. NotesThirteenth-century compilation of saints' lives that fixed the martyrdom traditions, including Bartholomew's flaying, for later European art.
Citation
AuthorJacobus de Voragine
PublisherPrinceton University Press
William Granger Ryan's complete English translation, 1993, two volumes. The underlying compilation dates to about 1260; that composition date is named here rather than conflated with the edition year. Publication Year1993
Ryan/Princeton translation year; the underlying compilation dates to about 1260. URLhttps://archive.org/details/bwb_W7-DBP-807
Source Typeprimary-text
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Bartholomew directly: "its saints, including the martyrdom of Bartholomew by flaying that recurs across centuries of religious painting."
Claims Backed By This Source (54 claims)
This source backs 54 claims across the atlas. As facts: 34 well-attested, 5 scholarly debate. As cited relationships: 2 holds. Plus 13 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Figures, 30 claims: 13 well-attested, 5 scholarly debate, 1 holds, 11 general references.
- Myths & Sacred Narratives, 9 claims: 8 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Sources, 9 claims: 8 well-attested, 1 holds.
- Articles, 5 claims: 5 well-attested.
- Animals & Totems, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Well-attested
34Myths & Sacred Narratives
General References
13Myths & Sacred Narratives
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.