ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, or Isidorus Hispalensis (c.

560-636), Spanish encyclopaedist and historian,

was the son of Severianus, a distinguished native of Cartagena, who came to Seville about the time
of the birth of Isidore. Leander, bishop of Seville, was his elder brother. Left an orphan while still
young, Isidore was educated in a monastery, and soon distinguished himself in controversies with
the Arians. In 599, on the death of his brother, he was chosen archbishop of Seville, and acquired
high renown by his successful administration of the episcopal office, as well as by his numerous
theological, historical and scientific works. He founded a school at Seville, and taught in it himself. In
the provincial and national councils he played an important part, notably at Toledo in 610, at Seville
in 619 and in 633 at Toledo, which profoundly modified the organization of the church in Spain. His
great work, however, was in another line. Profoundly versed in the Latin as well as in the Christian
literature, his indefatigable intellectual curiosity led him to condense and reproduce in encyclopaedic
form the fruit of his wide reading. His works, which include all topics - science, canon law, history
or theology - are unsystematic and largely uncritical, merely reproducing at second hand the
substance of such sources as were available. Yet in their inadequate way they served to keep alive
throughout the dark ages some little knowledge of the antique culture and learning. The most
elaborate of his writings is the Originum sive etymologiarum libri XX. It was the last of his works,
written between 622 and 633, and was corrected by his friend and disciple Braulion. It is
an encyclopaedia of all the sciences, under the form of an explanation of the terms proper to each of
them. It was one of the capital books of the middle ages.

On the Libri differentiarum sive de proprietate sermonum - of which the first book is a collection of
synonyms, and the second of explanations of metaphysical and religious ideas - see A. Mace's
doctoral dissertation, Rennes, 1900. Mommsen has edited the Chronica majora or Chronicon
de sex aetatibus (from the creation to A.D. 615) and the "Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum,
Sueborum," in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, auctores antiquissimi; Chronica minora II. The
history of the Goths is a historical source of the first order. The De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis or
better De viris illustribus, was a continuation of the work of St Jerome and of Gennadius (cf. G. von
Dzialowski in Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, iv. (1899). Especially interesting is the De natura rerum
ad Sisebutum 1 With Isidore of Alexandria has been confused an Isidore of Gaza, mentioned
by Photius. Little is known of him except that he was one of those who accompanied Damascius to
the Persian court when Justinian closed the schools in Athens in 529. Suidas, in speaking of Isidore
of Alexandria, says that Hypatia was his wife, but there is no means of approximating the dates (see
11YPATIA). Suetonius, in his Life of Nero, refers to a Cynic philosopher named Isidore, who is said
to have jested publicly at the expense of Nero.

regem, a treatise on astronomy and meteorology, which contained the sum of

physical philosophy during the early middle ages. The Regula monachorum of Isidore was adopted
by many of the monasteries in Spain during the 7th and 8th centuries. The collection of canons
known as the Isidoriana or Hispalensis is not by him, and the following, attributed to him, are of
doubtful authenticity: De ortu ac obitu patrum qui in Scriptura laudibus efferuntur; Allegorise
scripturae sacrae et liber numerorum; De ordine creaturarum. The edition of all of Isidore's works by
F. Orevalo (Rome, 1 7971803, 7 vols.), reproduced in Migne, Patrologia Latina, 81-84, is carefully
edited. See also C. Canal, San Isidoro, exposition de sus obras e indicaciones a cerca de la
influencia que han ejercido en la civilization espanola (Seville, 1897). A list of monographs is in
the Bibliographie of Ulysse Chevalier.