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The Legends of the Saints / Donald Attwater, Hippolyte Delehaye.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©1962Description: 1 online resource (276 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780823204403
  • 9780823296880
Subject(s): Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION -- PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION -- CHAPTER I. GENERAL IDEAS -- CHAPTER II. THE PRODUCTION OF LEGEND -- CHAPTER III. THE WORK OF THE HAGIOGRAPHER -- CHAPTER IV. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HAGIOGRAPHICAL TEXTS -- CHAPTER V. THE DOSSIER OF A SAINT -- CHAPTER VI. PAGAN MEMORIES AND SURVIVALS -- CHAPTER VII. SOME HAGIOGRAPHICAL ERRORS -- Father Hippolyte Delehaye : a Memoir -- Bibliography of Scientific Works by Hippolyte Delehaye -- Index of Saints
Summary: The Legends of the saint–facts about the saints. How often these two are thought to be the same thing, and everything which we read in saints’ biographies we take to be unadorned truth. But this is simply not so–the lives of the saints have from the earlier times been a mixture of fact, legend, fabrication and confusion.As Fr. Delehaye says: ‘The conditions in which many accounts of martyrs and lives of saints were composed are too little known to people in general to allow of a ground of understanding…We therefore believe we shall be doing a useful work by trying to set out, more clearly than usual, the various kinds of writings our pious authors produced, by outlining the origins of their compositions and by showing how far they were from being protected from making errors that exact history is bound to point out. The aim of this book is to briefly show the spirit in which hagiographical documents should be read, to sketch the method for discriminating between materials that the historian can use and those that he should leave to poets and artists as their property, and to put readers on their guard against being led away by formulas and preconceived ideas. There is no question of our waging war on legends. It would be a senseless thing to do…The work of legend can be numbered amongst the great unconscious natural forces. As such one cannot ignore it. Only, do not mistake it for history.’Since 1905, when it was first published, Delehaye’s study has been acclaimed as a classic example of impartial scholarship. His great learning, the balance of his mind, the economy of his style, the wit and humanity which inform the whole – these make a fascinating book, a delight to read for sheer enjoyment, and an invaluable source of information.The new translation, by Donald Attwater, does full justice to the original, so that the flavour of Delehaye’s personality and style are conveyed in the English. The text used is that of the revised edition of 1955.
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780823296880

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION -- PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION -- CHAPTER I. GENERAL IDEAS -- CHAPTER II. THE PRODUCTION OF LEGEND -- CHAPTER III. THE WORK OF THE HAGIOGRAPHER -- CHAPTER IV. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HAGIOGRAPHICAL TEXTS -- CHAPTER V. THE DOSSIER OF A SAINT -- CHAPTER VI. PAGAN MEMORIES AND SURVIVALS -- CHAPTER VII. SOME HAGIOGRAPHICAL ERRORS -- Father Hippolyte Delehaye : a Memoir -- Bibliography of Scientific Works by Hippolyte Delehaye -- Index of Saints

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The Legends of the saint–facts about the saints. How often these two are thought to be the same thing, and everything which we read in saints’ biographies we take to be unadorned truth. But this is simply not so–the lives of the saints have from the earlier times been a mixture of fact, legend, fabrication and confusion.As Fr. Delehaye says: ‘The conditions in which many accounts of martyrs and lives of saints were composed are too little known to people in general to allow of a ground of understanding…We therefore believe we shall be doing a useful work by trying to set out, more clearly than usual, the various kinds of writings our pious authors produced, by outlining the origins of their compositions and by showing how far they were from being protected from making errors that exact history is bound to point out. The aim of this book is to briefly show the spirit in which hagiographical documents should be read, to sketch the method for discriminating between materials that the historian can use and those that he should leave to poets and artists as their property, and to put readers on their guard against being led away by formulas and preconceived ideas. There is no question of our waging war on legends. It would be a senseless thing to do…The work of legend can be numbered amongst the great unconscious natural forces. As such one cannot ignore it. Only, do not mistake it for history.’Since 1905, when it was first published, Delehaye’s study has been acclaimed as a classic example of impartial scholarship. His great learning, the balance of his mind, the economy of his style, the wit and humanity which inform the whole – these make a fascinating book, a delight to read for sheer enjoyment, and an invaluable source of information.The new translation, by Donald Attwater, does full justice to the original, so that the flavour of Delehaye’s personality and style are conveyed in the English. The text used is that of the revised edition of 1955.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)