Isidore of Seville
c. 560 – 636 · Bishop of Seville
Also known as Isidorus Hispalensis
Feast: 4 April (Catholic)
Archbishop of Seville and last of the Latin Fathers. Encyclopedist whose Etymologiae preserved classical learning for the Middle Ages. Presided at the Fourth Council of Toledo (633).
Highlights
- Main contribution
- Isidore gathered the learning of the late ancient world before it scattered further.
- Event connection
- Third Council of Toledo (589)
- Best first read
- Etymologies
- Primary source
- Isidore, Etymologiae
Isidore gathered the learning of the late ancient world before it scattered further. His Etymologies tried to organise knowledge about language, scripture, law, medicine, nature, peoples, objects, and institutions into one usable reference work. Medieval monasteries and schools copied it because it gave them a map of inherited learning when the old Roman educational world had collapsed. He also helped organise the Visigothic church in Spain, so his work was both intellectual and institutional.
Notable works
- ·Etymologies · 627
Primary sources
- ·Isidore, Etymologiae
- ·Isidore, De Viris Illustribus
- ·Braulio of Saragossa, Renotatio Librorum Isidori
Book of the day
City of God
Augustine of HippoA reading pick tied to today's figure, quote, era, or event. Augustine's answer to Rome's collapse: two cities, providence, empire, worship, and Christian hope.
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