In Search of Sacred Time: Jacobus de Voragine and The Golden Legend by Jacques Le Goff (review)

For the past two decades, the Golden Legend composed by the Dominican prelate Jacobus de Voragine—as well as the genre of abridged legendaries (legendae novae)—have been a major subject of scientific research, inspiring extensive studies by scholars such as Barbara Fleith and Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, as well as editions, commentaries, and translations by Maggioni, Emore Paoli, and this reviewer. Following these books, the last major work by Le Goff, the doyen of medieval studies (who died in 2014)—humbly qualified by himself as an essay—investigates a key theme of his broad examination of medieval society: time as a defining factor of the Christian philosophy of life.

The mastering and the “sacralization” of time is, according to this work, the main goal of the Legenda Aurea that defines itself less as a legendary than as a somme sur le temps, or a handbook on time. The interpretation of human history as history of salvation, as well as the spiritual conception of time, appear clearly enough in the texts belonging to the genre of liturgical handbooks, where the chronological order of Lives and Passions (“Sanctorale”) is combined with movable or fixed church feasts and festival periods (“Temporale”); these types of handbooks were commonly designated as Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis or Mitrale. From the beginning, Jacobus establishes a pattern of liturgical time divided into four periods, following the example of John Beleth’s handbook (c. 1160): times of renewal, deviation, reconciliation, and pilgrimage. Le Goff adopts this pattern as a manner of spiritual guide and leads his reader—sometimes offering detailed analysis, at other times summarizing or paraphrasing—through this massive text that encompasses the liturgical year. His vast and profound knowledge enriches his commentary with multiple insights into medieval society and its mentality.

The bibliography of the English edition is provided in English, and a practical index of names and terms also is supplied.

The problems of dating and distinguishing literary genres, as well as those of source selection and use, naturally play a secondary role in a study of such comprehensive nature; however, they are important to study of the Golden Legend. For instance, given the fact that the saints’ days for their feasts were established according to the pre-existing calendar, an attempt to analyze the Sanctorale in terms of the four eschatological aspects of the ecclesiastical year (such as “the sanctorale of the time of pilgrimage,” p. 132) appears unconvincing.

Recent research has shown that Jacobus did not create any new material but compiled and arranged his written sources; yet Le Goff frequently praises his narrative talent (see, for example, “talent as a narrator,” p. 27; “fondness for telling dramatic stories in the style of thrillers,” p. 91; “shows his exceptional talent as narrator of titillating tales,” p. 126). The figure of John the Almsgiver and his vita were not invented by the Dominicans, as the author implies (p. 81), but stem from the writings of his friends Johannes Moschos and Sophronios that Jacobus, lacking knowledge of Greek, used in Latin translation by Anastasius Bibliothecarius. Furthermore, Guillaume Durand’s Rationale could not serve Jacobus as a source (c. 1280; “one of his favorite authors,” p. 28), but rather the work of earlier liturgists (Bishop Sicard of Cremona, Beleth) must have been used.

The fundamental elements of a legendary—veneration of saints, cult of relics, idea of purgatory, faith in the effective intercession of the saints and in corresponding miracles—were strictly rejected by the Cathars. Therefore, the Golden Legend can be considered as a Summa contra haereticos. The copious chapters on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day emphasize, without mentioning their opponent, the fundamental role played by saints in the orthodox doctrine of salvation. In addition, one minor dating problem related to this subject is worth mentioning: Jacobus dedicated one...