The lives of the saints and other sacred narratives contained in the Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Voragine are often seen as sources of late-medieval works of art and literature. Little of such importance, however, has been ascribed to a non-narrative element which appears at the head of many of the chapters — an ‘etymology’ of a saint's name set out to show that one can find in that single word, if its elements are duly discerned and interpreted, an indication of some of the virtues which were especially characteristic of the saint. Jacobus' handling of the name of St. Hilary of Poitiers is typical: Hilarius dictus est quasi hilaris, quia in seruitute Dei ualde hilaris fuit, uel dicitur Hilarius quasi alarius, ab altus et ares uirtus, quia fuit altus in scientia et uirtuosus in uita [a third etymology follows]. (p. 98)