duties, meals, festivals, fasts, dress, punishment, sickness and death. It recalls the somewhat similar
Institutes of Cassiodorus already mentioned.^1025
IV. Educational and philosophical. 1. Twenty books of Etymologies.^1026 This is his greatest
work, and considering its date truly an astonishing work. Caspar Barth’s list of the one hundred
and fifty-four authors quoted in it shows Isidore’s wide reading. Along with many Christian writers
are the following classic authors: Aesop, Anacreon, Apuleius, Aristotle, Boëthius, Caesar, Cato,
Catullus, Celsus, Cicero, Demosthenes, Ennius, Herodotus, Hesiod, Homer, Horace, Juvenal, Livy,
Lucan, Lucretius, Martial, Ovid, Persius, Pindar, Plato, Plautus, Pliny, Quintilian, Sallust, Suetonius,
Terence, Varro, Virgil.^1027 It is a concise encyclopedia of universal learning, embracing the seven
liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy), and medicine,
law, chronology, angelology, mineralogy, architecture, agriculture and many other topics. Although
much of his information is erroneous, and the tenth book, that of Etymology proper, is full of
absurdities, the work as a whole is worthy of high praise. It was authoritative throughout Europe
for centuries and repeatedly copied and printed. Rabanus Maurus drew largely upon it for his De
Universo. 2. The Differences, or the proper signification of terms,^1028 in two books. The first treats
of the differences of words. It is a dictionary of synonyms and of words which sound somewhat
alike, arranged alphabetically. The second book treats of the differences of things, and is a dictionary
of theology, brief yet comprehensive. 3. On the Nature of Things,^1029 in forty-eight chapters,
dedicated to King Sisebut (612–620), who had given him the subject. It is a sort of natural
philosophy, treating of the divisions of time, the heavens and the earth and the waters under the
earth. It also has illustrative diagrams. Like Isidore’s other works it is a skilful compilation from
patristic and profane authors,^1030 and was extremely popular in the Middle Age.
V. Historical. 1. A Chronicle,^1031 containing the principal events in the world from the
creation to 616. It is divided into six periods or ages, corresponding to the six days of creation, a
division plainly borrowed from Augustin.^1032 Its sources are Julius Africanus, Eusebius, Jerome,
and Victor of Tunnena.^1033 2. History of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi,^1034 brought down to 61. A
work which, like Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks, is the only source for certain periods.
It has been remarked^1035 that Isidore, like Cassiodorus, in spite of his Roman origin, had a high
regard for the Goths. 3. Famous Men^1036 a continuation of Gennadius’ appendix to Jerome’s work
with the same title. It sketches forty-six authors, beginning with Bishop Hosius of Cordova, and
extending to the beginning of the seventh century.
(^1025) See p. 657.
(^1026) Etymologiarum libri XX. Migne, LXXXII. col. 73-728.
(^1027) Arevalo, Prolegomena, c. 53, in Migne, LXXXI. col. 337-340.
(^1028) Differentiarum, sive de proprietate sermonum, libri duo, LXXXIII. col. 9-98.
(^1029) De natura rerum, ibid. col. 963-1018.
(^1030) See Becker’s ed. for a careful statement of his sources.
(^1031) Chronicon, LXXXIII. col. 1017-1058. In abbreviated form in the Etymologies, cf. V. 39. Migne, LXXXII. col. 224-228.
(^1032) De Civitate Dei, XXII. 30 (ed. Dombart, II. 635, Clark’s Aug. Lib. II. 544).
(^1033) See the essays of Hertzberg, already mentioned in Lit.in §155 II.
(^1034) Historia de regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum et Suevorum, Migne, LXXXIII. col. 1057-1082.
(^1035) Ebert, I. 566.
(^1036) De viris illustribus, Migne, LXXXIII. col. 1081-1106.