Isidore Of Seville.pdf

AN ENCYCLOPEDIST

OF THE DARK AGES

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE

In saeculorum fine doctissimus

(Ex concilio Toletano viii, cap. 2)

ERNEST BREHAUT, Ph.D.

Studies in History, Economics and Public Law

Columbia University

1912

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PREFACE

[7] T HE writer of the following pages undertook, at the suggestion of Professor James

Harvey Robinson, to translate passages from Isidore’s Etymologies which should serve

to illustrate the intellectual condition of the dark ages. It soon became evident that a

brief introduction to the more important subjects treated by Isidore would be necessary,

in order to give the reader an idea of the development of these subjects at the time at

which he wrote. Finally it seemed worth while to sum up in a general introduction the

results of this examination of the Etymologies and of the collateral study of Isidore’s

other writings which it involved.

For many reasons the task of translating from the Etymologies has been a difficult

one. There is no modern critical edition of the work to afford a reasonable certainty as

to the text; the Latin, while far superior to the degenerate language of Gregory of Tours,

is nevertheless corrupt; the treatment is often brief to the point of obscurity; the

terminology of ancient science employed by Isidore is often used without a due

appreciation of its meaning. However, the greatest difficulty in translating has arisen

from the fact that the work is chiefly a long succession of word derivations which

usually defy any attempt to render them into English.

In spite of these difficulties the study has been one of great interest. Isidore was, as

Montalambert calls him, le dernier savant du monde ancien , as well as the first

Christian encyclopaedist. His writings, therefore, while of no [8] importance in

themselves, become important as a phenomenon in the history of European thought. His

resort to ancient science instead of to philosophy or to poetry is suggestive, as is also

the wide variety of his ‘sciences’ and the attenuated condition in which they appear. Of

especial interest is Isidore’s state of mind, which in many ways is the reverse of that of

the modern thinker.

It is perhaps worth while to remark that the writer has had in mind throughout the

general aspects of the intellectual development of Isidore’s time: he has not attempted

to comment on the technical details—whether accurately given by Isidore or not—of

the many ‘sciences’ that appear in the Etymologies . The student of the history of music,

for example, or of medicine as a technical subject, will of course go to the sources.

The writer is under the greatest obligation to Professors James Harvey Robinson and

James Thomson Shotwell for assistance and advice, as well as for the illuminating

interpretation of the medieval period given in their lectures. He is also indebted to Mr.

Henry O. Taylor and Professors William A. Dunning and Munroe Smith for reading

portions of the manuscript.

Columbia University, New York, February, 1912.

E. B.

CONTENTS

PART I

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

I SIDORE ' S L IFE AND W RITINGS

1. Importance of Isidore .......................................................................................................... 15

a. Place in history of thought ............................................................................................. 15

b. Influence ........................................................................................................................ 17

2. Historical setting ................................................................................................................. 18

a. The Roman culture in Spain........................................................................................... 18

b. Assimilation of the barbarians ........................................................................................ I8

c. Predominance of the church ........................................................................................... 19

3. Life ...................................................................................................................................... 20

a. Family ............................................................................................................................ 20

b. Leander .......................................................................................................................... 20

e. Early years and education .............................................................................................. 21

d. Facts of his life............................................................................................................... 22

4. Impression made by Isidore on his contemporaries ............................................................ 23

Braulio’s account ............................................................................................................... 23

5. Works .................................................................................................................................. 24

a. Braulio’s list ................................................................................................................... 24

b. Works especially important as giving Isidore’s intellectual outlook ............................. 25

(1) Differentiae ........................................................................................................... 26

Stress on words .................................................................................................... 26

(2) De Natura Rerum .................................................................................................. 27

View of the physical universe.............................................................................. 27

General organization of subject-matter................................................................ 28

(3) Liber Numerorum .................................................................................................. 29

Mysticism of number ........................................................................................... 29

(4) Allegoriae .............................................................................................................. 29

(5) Sententiae .............................................................................................................. 29

(6) De Ordine Creaturarum ........................................................................................ 30

c. His main work—the Etymologies ................................................................................... 30

(2) Contents ................................................................................................................ 31

(3) Antiquarian character ............................................................................................ 32

(4) Leading principle of treatment—word derivation ................................................. 33

(5) Inconsistency of thought ....................................................................................... 34

(6) Circumstances of production................................................................................. 34

(1) Description ............................................................................................................ 30

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