Jacopo De Fazio, best known as the blessed Jacobus de
Varagine,[1] or in
Latin Voragine (Italian: Giacomo da Varazze, Jacopo
da Varazze; c. 1230 – 13 or 16 July 1298) was an Italian chronicler
and archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler,
of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of the
legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval
church that was one of the most popular religious works of the Middle Ages.[2]
Biography
Jacobus was born in Varagine[3] (Varazze), on the Ligurian coast between Savona and Genoa. He entered the Dominican order in 1244, and became the prior at Como, Bologna and Asti in succession.[4] Besides
preaching with success in many parts of Italy, he also taught in the schools of
his own fraternity. He was 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.[2]
In 1288 Nicholas empowered him to absolve the people of Genoa for their
offence in aiding the Sicilians against 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 Guelfs and Ghibellines.[5] A story,
mentioned by Echard 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."[2]
He died in 1298 or 1299, and was buried in the Dominican church at Genoa.[2] He
was beatified by Pius VII in 1816.[5]
Works
Jacobus de Varagine 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 (Legenda sanctorum) in one volume,
adding many things from the Historia tripartita et scholastica, and
from the chronicles of many writers."[2]
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 Gospels, 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.[2]
To Jacobus' own list his biographer Giovanni Monleone[7] adds several
other works, such as a defence of the Dominicans, printed at Venice in 1504,
and a Summa virtutum et vitiorum 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 and New Testaments 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.[2]
The Golden Legend
Main article: Golden Legend
The Golden Legend, one of the most popular religious works
of the Middle Ages,[8] is a collection
of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the
medieval church. The preface divides the ecclesiastical year into
four periods corresponding to the various epochs 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 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 miracles 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.[5] The last (182)
is a somewhat allegorical disquisition on the dedication of churches, "De
dedicatione ecclesiae".[2]
The Golden Legend was translated into Catalan in the 13th century and a first dated version
was published in Barcelona in 1494. A French version was made by Jean Belet de Vigny in the 14th century. A 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 one at Pilsen, 1475–1479, and
at Prague, 1495; Caxton's English versions, 1483,
1487, and 1493; and a German one in 1489.[2] 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.[2]
Chronicon januense
Jacobus' other chief work is his Chronicon januense, a
history of Genoa.[9] It is divided into
twelve parts. The first four deal with the mythical history of the city from
the time of its founder, 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 Pisans (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 duties of rulers and citizens, 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 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.[2]
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 the mystical body of Christ, she is the neck through
which all graces flow from Christ to his body.[10] 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.
Notes
1. ^ "'Varagine'
in the earliest records, meaning 'from Varazze'" (Christopher Stace, tr., The Golden
Legend: selections (Penguin) 1998:page x; Stace offers a modern
selection).
2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k One
or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication
now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh,
ed. (1911). "Jacobus de Voragine". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th
ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 121.
3. ^ The toponym Varagine is Lombard; the site appears in
the Tabula Peutingeriana as Ad Navalia.
4.
^ Stace 1998:, "Introduction" p. x.
5.
^ Jump up to:a b c Ott, Michael. "Blessed
Jacopo de Voragine." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
17 July 2016
6. ^ "Heiligenlevens
in het Middelnederlands[manuscript]". lib.ugent.be. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
7.
^ Monleone, Iacopo de Varagine e la sua Cronaca di
Genova dalle origini al MCCXCVII (Istituto storico italiano per il
Medio Evo) 1941.
8. ^ 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.
9.
^ Dotson, John (2007).
"The Genoese Civic Annals: Caffaro and his continuations". In Dale,
Sharon; Lewin, Alison Williams; Osheim, Duane J. (eds.). Chronicling
History: chroniclers and historians in medieval and Renaissance Italy. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State
University Press. pp. 55–86 (70). ISBN 9780271032252.
10. ^ Bäumer,
Marienlexikon Eos St. Ottilien, 1992 489
N. B. supra, despite
Stace's comment in Note 1, he nevertheless gives the standard version of
Jacobus' name, that is: "Jacobus de Voragine." Jacobus de Voragine,
The Golden Legend: Selections, trans. Christopher Stace (1998)
References
·
“Jacobus De Voragine,” Encyclopædia
Britannica
Further reading
·
Reames,
Sherry L. The Legenda Aurea: A Reexamination of Its Paradoxical History (Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press) 1985.
· Iacopo
da Varazze, Legenda aurea G.P. Maggioni (ed.), Firenze, 1998.
· Jacobus, and William G. Ryan. The
Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Volume 1 and volume 2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1993.
· Pieter van Os (September 1, 1490). Legenda aurea sanctorum, sive Lombardica historia. archive.org (in
Latin and German). II. Archived from
the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019. (for textual verification)
External links
·
Christian classics
Ethereal Library:
brief biography
·
Lewis E 199 Legenda
aurea (Golden Legend) at OPenn
· MS 1174/14 Sermones quadragesimales at OPenn
· 20 Jacobus de Voragine: Sermones etc. at OPenn
·
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 Varagine (the first collection published is the Sermones Quadragesimales,
98 texts). Also offers an extensive biography and bibliography on the author.
·
Michael Ott (1913). . In Herbermann,
Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York:
Robert Appleton Company.
· Das Passional, oder Der Heiligen Leben durch das gantz Iar. Reutlingen [Johann Otmar] 12 Mar. (Dienstag nach Oculi) [14]82. From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress
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