560-636

Spanish Roman Encyclopedist

As the title of his Etymologies suggests, Isidore of Seville intended his monumental work as an exploration of word origins. What resulted was both something less and something more than he intended. On the one hand, the book has its ludicrous moments, particularly when the author's slavish commitment to his original purpose forced him to stretch credibility beyond the breaking point. On the other hand, the Etymologies comprises an encyclopedia of all that was known at the time concerning science and technology, and provides a panoramic view of ideas on education, theology, and other subjects in late antiquity—or more properly, the early medieval period.

Isidore's family were native Spaniards trained in Roman traditions, but the Western Roman Empire had long since fallen, and Spain had belonged to the Visigoths for more than a century when he was...