''Der Heiligen Leben'' ('The Lives of Saints'), also known as ''Passional'', was a German legendary, compiled by a Dominican friar from

Nürnberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the largest city in Franconia, the second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria, and its 544,414 (2023) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. ...

around 1400. Today, 197 manuscripts are known, along with 33 High German and 8 Low German imprints; the oldest imprint is that of

Günther Zainer Günther Zainer (or Zeyner or Zeiner) (died 1 October 1478) was the first printer in Augsburg, where he worked from 1468 until his death; he produced about 80 books including two German editions of the Bible and the first printed calendar. He ...

(Augsburg, 1471/72) and the latest is from

Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

(1521). The 1502 edition had a print run of 1000 copies, an exceptional figure for the time. The collection originally contained 251 legends and became 'the most influential model for most of the vernacular legendaries of the fifteenth century', and was 'unparalleled in its overall popularity in the whole of Europe ... Hardly a work of German literature was read by such a wide audience'.Werner Williams-Krapp, 'German and Dutch Translations of the ''Legenda Aurea'',' in ''Legenda aurea: Sept siècles de diffusion. Actes du colloque international sur la 'Legenda aurea': texte latin et branches vernaculaires à l'Université du Québec à Montréal 11-12 mai 1983'' (Montréal: Éditions Bellarmin, 1986), p. 229, cited by Marianne E. Kalinke, ''The Book of Reykjahólar: The Last of the Great Medieval Legendaries'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), p. 4.

References

Christian hagiography 1400 books History of Christianity in Germany {{Germany-book-stub