Penflourish initial U at the beginning of the Prologue
MS Ii.1.25, f. 1r
Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea
England, ca 1300

The rubric at the beginning of the Prologue names the author as frater Jacobus natione ianuensi de ordine predicatorum (brother James of the Genoese nation of the order of preachers). The Prologue describes the division of time with the ‘time of pilgrimage as that of our present life’, and then explains that the text is arranged according to the order of feast days and saints’ days in the church year, beginning with Advent. This copy was written and decorated in England in the early fourteenth century and has a red and blue penwork initial with a border extension at the beginning of the Prologue. The ornamental style of the initial is not specific enough to localise the place of production of the book.