“ 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 with his own hands. ”

“ The tenth gives the ecclesiastical history of Genoa from the time of its first known bishop, St Valentine, “whom we believe to have lived about 530 A.D.,” till 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 pontificates; the twelfth deals in the same way with the archbishops, not forgetting the writer himself.
The Golden Legend, one of the most popular religious works of the middle ages, is a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval church. ”

“ The saints’ lives are full of puerile legend, and in not a few cases contain accounts of 13th-century miracles wrought at special places, particularly with reference to the Dominicans. The last chapter but one (181) , “De Sancto Pelagio Papa,” contains a kind of history of the world from the middle of the 6th century; while the last (182) is a somewhat allegorical disquisition, “De Dedicatione Ecclesiae.”
The Golden Legend was translated into French by Jean Belet de Vigny in the 14th century. It was also one of the earliest books to issue from the press. ”