JACOBUS DE VORAGINE (c. 1230—C. 1298), Italian chronicler, archbishop of Genoa, was born at Varazze, near Genoa, and joined the Dominicans in 1244. He was provincial of Lom bardy from 1267 till 1286, and represented his own pro :ince at the councils of Lucca (1288) and Ferrara In 1288 Nicholas IV. empowered him to absolve the people of Genoa for their offence in aiding the Sicilians against Charles II. Early in 1292 Jacobus was consecrated archbishop of Genoa where he distinguished himself by his efforts to appease the civil discords of Genoa. He died in 1298 or 1299, and was buried in the Domin ican church at Genoa.
His chief works are the Chronicon januense and the Golden Legend or Lombardica hystoria. The former, partly printed in Muratori
(Scriptores Rer. Ital. ix. 6), deals with the history of Genoa from its earliest days to the time of the writer himself. The latter, one of the most popular religious works of the middle ages, is a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints, ornamented with much curious information.
See Potthast, Bibliotheca, hist. med. aevi., 13th ed. (Berlin, 1896), U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources hist. Bio.-bibl. (1905), and F. L. Mannucci, La Cronaca di Jacops da Varagine (Genoa, 1904).