"Legende Dorée," and Caxton's "Golden Legend."

Ferron and de Vignay were avowedly translators. Their original was
Jacques de Cessoles. The name of this author has been tortured into so
many fantastic forms that one may almost despair of recovering the
original. Cæsolis, Cassalis, Castulis, Casulis, Cesolis, Cessole,
Cessulis, Cesulis, Cezoli, de Cezolis, de Cossoles, de Courcelles,
Sesselis, Tessalis, Tessellis, de Thessolus, de Thessolonia, and de
Thessolonica are different manners of spelling his surname, and the two
last are certainly masterpieces of transformation. Prosper Marchand has
amused himself by collecting some vain speculations of previous writers
as to the age, country, and personality of Jacques de Cessoles. Some
counted him a Lombard, some an Italian, whilst others again boldly
asserted that he was a Greek!

He lived towards the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the
fourteenth century, and having joined the Dominican order, was a "Maître
en Théologie" of that brotherhood at Reims. Various works are attributed
to him, and his learning and piety had many eulogists.

It is more than probable that his name would have been much less widely
known but for the happy accident that turned his attention to the game
of chess. It was a popular diversion, and in the moralizing spirit of
the age he saw in it an allegory of the various components of the
commonwealth. The men who were merely killing time were perhaps
flattered at the thought that they were at the same time learning the
modes of statecraft. Then, as now, the teachers of morality felt that a
song might reach him who a sermon flies, and they did not scruple to use
in the pulpit whatever aids came handy. The popular stories, wise saws,
and modern instances, were common enough on the lips of the preachers,