Un prologue inédit de légendier latin

Brussels manuscripts B. R. 197 and 409 belong to a legendary compiled at Rouge-Cloitre in the third quarter of the 15th century. The compiler considered it useful to add another prologue of his own composition before the preface of the Legenda aurea (Brussels, B. R. 409, f. 4r-v). In fact it is a patchwork of hagiographic topoi (from the Passiones of Chrysanthus and Daria, of Fides, Spes and Caritas, and of Cecilia; from the Vita of Maria of Oignies) with the intention of justifying the reading and imitation of the acts of the saints.