Title and imprint from colophon (leaf kk5r): Thus endeth the legende named in latyn legenda aurea / that is to saye in englysshe the golden legende / ... Whiche werke I have accomplisshed at the commaundemente and requeste of the noble and puyssaunte erle and my special good lord Wyllyam erle of arondel / [and] have fynysshed it at westmestre the twenty day of novembre / the yere of our lord M/CCCC/lxxxiii/ [and] the fyrst yere of the reygne of Kyng Rychard the thyrd By me wyllyam Caxton.
Colophon of second setting (leaf kk6v): Thus endeth the legende named in latyn legenda aurea / that is to saye in englysshe the golden legende / ... whyche werke I have accomplisshed at the commau[n]demente and requeste of the noble and puyssaunte erle / and my specyal good lord wyllyam erle of arondel / [and] have fynysshed it at westmestre the twenty day of novembre / the yere of our lord M/CCCC/lxxxiii / / [and] the fyrst / yere of the reygne of Kyng Rychard the thyrd / By me wylyam Caxton>.
Printed in Caxton's types 3:135G and 4:95(100)B*; in reset quires: 5:113G and 4:95(100)B*.
Date based on Caxton's date of translation and the absense of printed initials, in use from 26 March 1484.
Collation, first setting: [1]⁶; a-z [et]⁸ ?⁶ A-U⁸ X⁶ Y²⁽²⁺¹⁾; aa-ff⁸ gg⁶ hh-ii⁸ kk⁶: 449 leaves, leaves [1]/1 and kk6 blank. Collation, second setting: [1]⁴; a-z [et]⁸ [us]⁶ A-X⁸; aa-ff⁸ gg⁶ hh-ii⁸ kk⁶: 446 leaves.
Paper format: Royal folio
Quires [1], u-z, [et], ?, F-Y, and aa-kk exist in two settings, one reprinted from the other. Reprinting was done shortly after original printing. The contents of the two isues follow the same sequence, until the end, where in the second issue the Life of St. Erasmus is insterted before Caxton's epilogue and colophon.
Translated by William Caxton.
87 woodcut illustrations from 69 blocks (Hodnett, nos. 237-305).
PML 780 is second setting.
PML 780 leaf dimensions: 33.9 x 22.8 cm.
PML 780 missing 34 leaves: [1]/1, c2, g6-7, S5, ff8, gg1-kk6 (generally replaced with blanks). Several leaves/margins repaired, some text affected; leaf b1v repaired with manuscript fragment dated 1586. Leaf O2 mostly torn away.
Legenda aurea sanctorum, sive Lombardica historia
Hand decoration: Rubricated, red lombards (Caxton shop?, see BMC). Annotations: Sporadic notations throughout in 16th-century hand, including: "This booke doth lye as fast as a horse can trott" (leaf [1]/2r), "nowe arked Noe / the earth forsakes / a deluge great / the work oretakes" (leaf e7r), "this book is full of lyes" with two drawings (leaf m7v), "Joynr to St. George our English Don Phoebe eclyped St. Thomas knight of the Sunn" (leaf u5v), "Give to the [?] suche as thow hast...," abraded (leaf A2v), "This may be true [?] goose where thow will believe" (leaf D3r). St. Thomas of Canterbury, image abraded, with inscriptions "Thys Saynt Thomas was a knave," 1542 (leaf B4r-4v). Round stain (leaf d1r).