Editing Isidore of Seville

{{Short description|Hispano-Roman scholar (c. 560–636)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2019}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = [[Saint]]
|name = Isidore of Seville
|birth_date = {{Circa|560}}
|death_date = 4 April 636
|feast_day = 4 April
|venerated_in = * [[Catholic Church]]
* [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
|image = Isidor von Sevilla.jpeg
|caption = ''St. Isidore of Seville'' (1655), depicted by [[Bartolomé Esteban Murillo]]
|birth_place = [[Cartagena, Spain|Cartagena]]
|death_place = [[Seville]]
|titles = [[Bishop]], [[Confessor of the faith|Confessor]] and [[Doctor of the Church]]
|canonized_date = [[Congregation for the Causes of Saints|Pre-Congregation]]
|attributes = {{hlist|Bees and [[apiary|apiaries]]|Old bishop with a prince at his feet|Pens|Books|with [[Saint Leander]], [[Saint Fulgentius of Cartagena]], and [[Saint Florentina]]|the ''[[Etymologiae]]''}}
|patronage = [[Student]]s
{{Infobox philosopher
| embed              = yes
| school_tradition   = * [[Etymology]]
* [[Augustinianism]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Russell |first=R. P. |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/augustinianism |title=Augustinianism |encyclopedia=[[New Catholic Encyclopedia]] |via=[[Encyclopedia.com]] |access-date=4 April 2021}}</ref>
| era                = [[Medieval philosophy]]
| main_interests     = [[Theology]], Grammar, [[rhetoric]], mathematics, medicine, law, languages, cities, animals and birds, the physical world, geography
| notable_works      = ''[[Etymologiae]]''
| notable_ideas      = [[Isidoran map]]
}}
}}
'''Isidore of Seville''' ({{langx|la|Isidorus Hispalensis}}; {{Circa|560}}{{snd}}4 April 636) was a [[Spania|Hispano-Roman]] scholar, [[theologian]] and [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville|archbishop of Seville]]. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian [[Charles Forbes René de Montalembert]], as "the last scholar of the [[ancient world]]".<ref>Montalembert, Charles F. ''Les Moines d'Occident depuis Saint Benoît jusqu'à Saint Bernard'' ''[The Monks of the West from Saint Benedict to Saint Bernard]''. Paris: J. Lecoffre, 1860.</ref>

At a time of disintegration of classical culture,<ref>Jacques Fontaine, ''Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique'' (Paris) 1959</ref> aristocratic violence, and widespread illiteracy, Isidore was involved in the conversion of the [[Arianism|Arian]] [[Visigothic kings]] to [[Chalcedonian Christianity]], both assisting his brother [[Leander of Seville]] and continuing after Leander's death. He was influential in the inner circle of [[Sisebut]], Visigothic king of [[Hispania]]. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the [[Councils of Toledo]] and Seville.

His fame after his death was based on his ''[[Etymologiae]]'', an [[etymology|etymological]] encyclopedia that assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would otherwise have been lost. This work also helped to standardise the use of the [[full stop]], [[comma]] and [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Houston |first=Keith |title=The mysterious origins of punctuation |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150902-the-mysterious-origins-of-punctuation |access-date=2022-09-13 |website=www.bbc.com|date=2 September 2015 }}</ref>

Since the [[Early Middle Ages]], Isidore has sometimes been called '''Isidore the Younger''' or '''Isidore Junior''' ({{langx|la|Isidorus iunior|link=no}}), because of the earlier history purportedly written by Isidore of Córdoba.<ref>[[Bonnie J. Blackburn]] and [[Leofranc Holford-Strevens]], eds., in [[Florentius de Faxolis]], ''Book on Music'' (Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 262.</ref>

==Life==

===Childhood and education===
Isidore was born in [[Cartagena, Spain]], a former Carthaginian colony, to Severianus and Theodora. Both Severian and Theodora belonged to notable [[Hispano-Roman]] families of high social rank.<ref>Priscilla Throop, ''Isidore of Seville's Etymologies: Complete English Translation''. Vermont: MedievalMS, 2005, p. xi.</ref> His parents were members of an influential family who were instrumental in the political-religious manoeuvring that [[Religious conversion|converted]] the [[Visigothic Kingdom|Visigothic kings]] from Arianism to [[Chalcedonian Christianity]]. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches celebrate him and all his siblings as known saints:
* An elder brother, [[Leander of Seville]], immediately preceded Isidore as Archbishop of Seville and, while in office, opposed King [[Liuvigild]].
* A younger brother, [[Fulgentius of Cartagena]], served as the [[Diocese|Bishop]] of [[Astigi]] at the start of the new reign of the Christian King [[Reccared]].
* His sister, [[Saint Florentina|Florentina of Cartagena]], was a nun who allegedly ruled over forty convents and one thousand consecrated religious. This claim seems unlikely, however, given the few functioning monastic institutions in Spania during her lifetime.<ref>[[Roger Collins]], ''Early Medieval Spain''. New York: St Martin's Press, 1995, pp. 79–86.</ref>

Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, the first of its kind in Spania, a body of learned men including Archbishop Leander of Seville taught the [[trivium (education)|trivium]] and [[quadrivium]], the classic [[liberal arts]]. Isidore applied himself to study diligently enough that he quickly mastered classical Latin,<ref>"His literary style, though lucid, is pedestrian": Katherine Nell MacFarlane's observation, in "Isidore of Seville on the Pagan Gods (Origines VIII. 11)", ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', New Series, '''70'''.3 (1980):1–40, p. 4, reflects mainstream secular opinion.</ref> and acquired some [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].

Two centuries of Gothic control of Iberia incrementally suppressed the ancient institutions, classical learning, and manners of the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sack |first=Harald |date=2020-04-04 |title=The Encyclopaedia of Saint Isidore of Seville {{!}} SciHi Blog |url=http://scihi.org/encyclopaedia-saint-isidor-seville/ |access-date=2024-04-08 |language=en-US}}</ref> The associated culture entered a period of long-term decline. The ruling [[Visigoths]] nevertheless showed some respect for the outward trappings of Roman culture. Arianism meanwhile took deep root among the Visigoths as the form of Christianity that they received.

Scholars may debate whether Isidore ever personally embraced monastic life or affiliated with any religious order, but he undoubtedly esteemed the monks highly.

===Bishop of Seville===
[[Image:Isidoro de Sevilla (José Alcoverro) 01.jpg|thumb|A statue of Isidore of Seville by [[José Alcoverro]], 1892, outside the {{Lang|es|[[Biblioteca Nacional de España]]|italic=no}}, in [[Madrid]]]]
[[Image:San Isidoro, Portada del Bautismo de la Catedral de Sevilla.jpg|thumb|[[Seville Cathedral]]. Sculpture by [[Lorenzo Mercadante|Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña]]]]

After the death of [[Leander of Seville]] on 13 March 600 or 601, Isidore succeeded to the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville|See of Seville]]. On his elevation to the [[Bishop|episcopate]], he immediately constituted himself as the protector of monks.

Recognising that the spiritual and material welfare of the people of his see depended on the assimilation of remnant Roman and ruling barbarian cultures, Isidore attempted to weld the peoples and subcultures of the Visigothic kingdom into a united nation. He used all available religious resources toward this end and succeeded. Isidore practically eradicated the heresy of [[Arianism]] and completely stifled the new [[heresy]] of [[Acephali]] at its outset. Archbishop Isidore strengthened religious discipline throughout his see.

Archbishop Isidore also used resources of education to counteract increasingly influential Gothic barbarism throughout his episcopal jurisdiction. His quickening spirit animated the educational movement centered on Seville. Isidore introduced his countrymen to [[Aristotle]] long before the Arabs studied Greek philosophy extensively.

In 619 Isidore of Seville pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who in any way should molest the monasteries.

===Second Synod of Seville (November 619)===
{{Main|Second Council of Seville}}

Isidore presided over the Second Council of Seville, begun on 13 November 619 in the reign of King [[Sisebut]], a provincial council attended by eight other bishops, all from the ecclesiastical province of Baetica in southern Spain. The Acts of the Council fully set forth the nature of Christ, countering the conceptions of Gregory, a Syrian representing the heretical Acephali.

===Third Synod of Seville (624)===
Based on a few surviving canons found in the [[Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals]], Isidore is known to have presided over an additional provincial council around 624.

The council dealt with a conflict over the [[Episcopal see|See]] of Écija and wrongfully stripped bishop Martianus of his see, a situation that was rectified by the Fourth Council of Toledo. It also addressed a concern over Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity<!-- by Sisebut failing to present their children for baptism -->.

The records of the council, unlike the First and Second Councils of Seville, were not preserved in the [[Collections of ancient canons|Hispana]], a collection of canons and decretals likely edited by Isidore himself.<ref>Rachel Stocking, "Martianus, Aventius and Isidore: provincial councils in seventh-century Spain" ''Early Medieval Europe'' 6 (1997) 169–188.</ref>

===Fourth National Council of Toledo===
{{Main|Fourth Council of Toledo}}

All bishops of Hispania attended the Fourth National Council of Toledo, begun on 5 December 633. The aged Archbishop Isidore presided over its deliberations and originated most enactments of the council.

Through Isidore's influence, this Council of Toledo promulgated a decree commanding all bishops to establish seminaries in their cathedral cities along the lines of the cathedral school at Seville, which had educated Isidore decades earlier. The decree prescribed the study of Greek, Hebrew, and the liberal arts and encouraged interest in law and medicine.<ref name="ReferenceA">Isidore's own work regarding medicine is examined by {{cite journal |last1=Sharpe |first1=William D. |year=1964 |title=Isidore of Seville: The Medical Writings |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |volume=54 |issue=2}}</ref> The authority of the council made this education policy obligatory upon all bishops of the Kingdom of the Visigoths. The council granted remarkable position and deference to the king of the Visigoths. The independent Church bound itself in allegiance to the acknowledged king; it said nothing of allegiance to the [[Papacy|Bishop of Rome]].

===Death===
Isidore of Seville died on 4 April 636 after serving more than 32 years as archbishop of Seville.

==Works==
{{Catholic philosophy}}
Isidore's Latin style in the ''[[Etymologiae]]'' and elsewhere, though simple and lucid, reveals increasing local Visigothic traditions.

===''Etymologiae''===
{{Main|Etymologiae}}

[[Image:Isidoro di siviglia, etimologie, fine VIII secolo MSII 4856 Bruxelles, Bibliotheque Royale Albert I, 20x31,50, pagina in scrittura onciale carolina.jpg|thumb|upright|A page of ''Etymologiae'', [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian]] manuscript (8th century), [[Brussels]], [[Royal Library of Belgium]]]]
[[File:Isidori Hispalensis Opera Omnia.tif|thumb|upright|''Isidori Hispalensis Opera Omnia'' (1797)]]

Isidore was the first Christian writer to try to compile a ''[[summa]]'' of universal knowledge, in his most important work, the ''[[Etymologiae]]'' (taking its title from the method he uncritically used in the transcription of his era's knowledge). It is also known by classicists as the ''Origines'' (the standard abbreviation being ''Orig''.). This [[encyclopedia]]—the first such Christian [[epitome]]—formed a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 volumes.<ref name="auto">MacFarlane 1980:4; MacFarlane translates ''Etymologiae'' viii.</ref>

In it, Isidore entered his own terse digest of Roman handbooks, miscellanies and compendia. He continued the trend towards abridgements and summaries that had characterised Roman learning in [[Late Antiquity]]. In the process, many fragments of classical learning are preserved that otherwise would have been hopelessly lost; "in fact, in the majority of his works, including the ''Origines'', he contributes little more than the mortar which connects excerpts from other authors, as if he was aware of his deficiencies and had more confidence in the ''stilus maiorum'' than his own," his translator Katherine Nell MacFarlane remarks.<ref name="auto"/>

Some of these fragments were lost in the first place because Isidore's work was so highly regarded—[[Braulio of Zaragoza|Braulio]] called it ''quaecunque fere sciri debentur'', "practically everything that it is necessary to know"<ref>Braulio, ''Elogium'' of Isidore appended to Isidore's ''[[De viris illustribus]]'', heavily indebted itself to [[Jerome]].</ref>—that it superseded the use of many individual works of the classics themselves, which were not recopied and have therefore been lost: "all secular knowledge that was of use to the Christian scholar had been winnowed out and contained in one handy volume; the scholar need search no further".<ref>MacFarlane 1980:4.</ref>

Book VIII of the ''Etymologiae'' covers religion, including the Christian Church, Judaism, heretical sects, pagan philosophers, sibyls, and magi.<ref>{{Cite book | title=The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville | last1=Barney | first1=Stephen A. | last2=Lewis | first2=W. J. | last3=Beach | first3=J. A. | last4=Berghof | first4=O. | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2006 | edition=1st | isbn=978-0-511-21969-6 |pages=173–190}}</ref> In this section, Isidore documents pre-Christian religious and magical beliefs, preserving knowledge about ancient magical practices, even while condemning them as superstition. His writings serve as one of the few surviving records of magical thought in early medieval Europe, helping to transmit classical esoteric ideas into the Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Otto |first1=B. |last2=Stausberg |first2=M. |year=2014 |title=Defining Magic: A Reader |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1317545033}}</ref>

The fame of this work imparted a new impetus to encyclopedic writing, which bore abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the [[Middle Ages]]. It was the most popular compendium in [[medieval]] libraries. It was printed in at least ten editions between 1470 and 1530, showing Isidore's continued popularity in the [[Renaissance]]. Until the 12th century brought translations from Arabic sources, Isidore transmitted what western Europeans remembered of the works of [[Aristotle]] and other Greeks, although he understood only a limited amount of Greek.<ref name="CatEncy">{{cite web|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Isidore of Seville|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08186a.htm|access-date=2020-07-27|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> The ''Etymologiae'' was much copied, particularly into medieval [[bestiary|bestiaries]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Epistemology of the Monstrous in the Middle Ages|last=Verner|first=Lisa|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=978-0415972437|pages=94–95}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0691154916|editor-last=Green|editor-first=Roland|edition=4th}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bestiary : Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford M.S. Bodley 764: With All the Original Miniatures Reproduced in Facsimile|last=Barber|first=Richard W.|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|year=1992|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk, England|pages=8, 13}}</ref>

===''On the Catholic Faith against the Jews''===
[[Image:Diagrammatic T-O world map - 12th century.jpg|thumb|upright|The medieval [[T-O map]] represents the inhabited world as described by Isidore in his ''Etymologiae'']]

Isidore's ''De fide catholica contra Iudaeos'' furthers [[Augustine of Hippo]]'s ideas on the Jewish presence in the Christian society of the ancient world. Like Augustine, Isidore held an acceptance of the Jewish presence as necessary to society because of their expected role in the anticipated [[Second Coming of Christ]].

But Isidore had access to Augustine's works, out of which one finds more than forced acceptance ''of'' but rather broader reasons than just an endtime role ''for'' Jews in society:

:[D]iversities in the manners, laws, and institutions whereby earthly peace is secured and maintained [are not scrupled in the heavenly city for which we strive, while its citizens sojourn on earth], but recognizing that, however various they are, they all tend to one and the same end of earthly peace.

:[The heavenly city] is therefore so far from rescinding and abolishing these diversities, that it even preserves and adopts them, so long only as no hindrance to the worship of the one supreme and true God is thus introduced...and makes this earthly peace bear upon the peace of heaven; for this alone can be truly called and esteemed the peace of the reasonable creatures, consisting as it does in the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God and of one another in God. (''City of God'', Book 19, Chapter 17)<ref name=cog>Marcus Dods, translator.</ref>

According to Jeremy Cohen, Isidore exceeds the anti-rabbinic polemics of earlier theologians by criticising Jewish practice as deliberately disingenuous in ''De fide catholica contra Iudaeos''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Jeremy |title=Living Letters of the Law |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3NfOL9Q0i4C |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |year=1999 |isbn=978-0520218703 |page=97}}</ref>

But once again Isidore's same predecessor, Augustine, seems to have written of at least the possibility of Jewish rabbinical practice along that subject's content's purportedly deceptive lines in the same work cited above:

:They say that it is not credible that the seventy translators [of the [[Septuagint]]] who simultaneously and unanimously produced one rendering, could have erred, or, in a case in which no interest of theirs was involved, could have falsified their translation, but that the Jews, envying us our translation of their Law and Prophets, have made alterations in their texts to undermine the authority of ours. (''City of God'', Book 15, Chapter 11)<ref name=cog/>

He contributed two decisions to the [[Fourth Council of Toledo]]: Canon 60 calling for the forced removal of children from parents practising [[Crypto-Judaism]] and their education by Christians on the basis that while their parents were concealing themselves under the guise of Christians, they had presumably allowed their children to be baptised with intent to deceive. This removal was an exception to the general rule of the treatment of Jewish children according to the 13th century ''Summa Theologica'', "[I]t was never the custom of the Church to baptize the children of Jews against the will of their parents...."<ref>[[Thomas Aquinas|Aquinas]], St. Thomas (1274). ''Summa Theologica'', p. II of p. IInd, "Treatise on Faith, Hope and Charity", Question 10, Article 12, Answer.  Quote continues: "..., although in times past there have been many very powerful catholic princes like [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] and [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]], who would certainly not have failed to obtain this favour from them if it had been at all reasonable."</ref>

He also contributed Canon 65 thought to forbid Jews and Christians of Jewish origin from holding public office.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Isidore of Seville: His attitude towards Judaism and his impact on early Medieval Canonical law |author=Bar-Shava Albert |journal=The Jewish Quarterly Review |year=1990 |volume=XXX 3,4 |issue=3/4 |pages=207–220 |jstor=1454969}}</ref>

===Other works===
Isidore's authored more than a dozen major works on various topics including mathematics, holy scripture, and monastic life,<ref name="Lowney2012">{{cite book|author=Christopher Lowney|title=A Vanished World: Medieval Spain's Golden Age of Enlightenment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHNYF96QXZAC&pg=PA17|date=2012|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0743282611|page=17}}</ref> all in Latin:
* ''[[Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum]]'', a history of the Gothic, Vandal and Suebi kings. The longer edition, issued in 624, includes the ''Laus Spaniae'' and the ''Laus Gothorum''.
* ''Chronica Majora'', a [[Universal history (genre)|universal history]]
* ''De differentiis verborum'', a brief theological treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity, the nature of Christ, of Paradise, angels, and men
* ''De natura rerum'' (''On the Nature of Things''), a book of [[astronomy]] and [[natural history]] dedicated to the Visigothic king [[Sisebut]]
* ''Questions on the Old Testament''
* ''Liber numerorum qui in sanctis Scripturis occurrunt'',<ref>Migne, [https://mlat.uzh.ch/browser?path=/xanfang.php&text=8214 Patrologia], 83, 179.</ref> a mystical treatise on the allegorical meanings of numbers
* a number of brief letters
* ''Sententiae libri tres'' Codex Sang. 228; 9th century<ref>{{cite web|title=e-codices – Virtuelle Handschriftenbibliothek der Schweiz|url=https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/de/list/csg|access-date=2020-07-27|website=www.e-codices.unifr.ch}}</ref>
* ''De viris illustribus''
* ''De ecclesiasticis officiis''
* ''De summo bono''
* ''De ortu et obitu patrum''
* ''Regula Monachorum<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dyer |first=Joseph |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124538.001.0001 |title=The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments, Hagiography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |editor-last=Baltzer |editor-first=Rebecca A. |location=New York |pages=75 |chapter=Observations on the Divine Office in the Rule of the Master |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124538.001.0001 |isbn=0195124537 |editor-last2=Fassler |editor-first2=Margot E. |url-access=subscription}}</ref>''

==Veneration==
[[Image:Meister des Codex 167 c.jpg|thumb|Isidore (right) and [[Braulio of Zaragoza|Braulio]] (left) in an [[Ottonian]] [[illuminated manuscript]] from the 2nd half of the 10th century]]
Isidore was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers and was contemporary with [[Maximus the Confessor]]. He has been called the most learned man of his age by some scholars,<ref name="Knoebel2008">{{cite book|author1=Isidore of Seville|translator1-first=Thomas L. |translator1-last=Knoebel|title=Isidore of Seville: De Ecclesiasticis Officiis|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_YhkqmfNeIIC&pg=PA11|year=2008|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-0581-6|page=11|chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref name="Kleinhenz2004">{{cite book|author=Bradford Lee Eden |author-link=Bradford Lee Eden |editor1=Christopher Kleinhenz|editor2=John W. Barker|editor3=Gail Geiger|editor4=Richard Lansing|title=Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TNs3BQAAQBAJ&pg=PT2012|date=2 August 2004|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-94879-5|page=2012|chapter=Isidore of Seville}}</ref> and he exercised a far-reaching and immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary and friend [[Braulio of Zaragoza]] regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Spanish peoples from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilisation of [[Hispania]].<ref name="Valverde2004">{{cite book|author=Jorge Mario Cabrera Valverde|title=Estampas de la Antigüedad Clásica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lEY6FaGzVyMC&pg=PA124|year=2004|publisher=Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica|isbn=978-9977-67-803-0|page=124|quote=Un discípulo suyo, San Braulio de Zaragoza, escribe sobre él: ""Después de tantas ruinas y desastres, Dios le ha suscitado en estos últimos tiempos para restaurar los monumentos de los antiguos, a fin de que no cayésemos por completo en la barbarie." English: A disciple of his, San Braulio de Zaragoza, writes about him: After so much destruction and so many disasters, God has raised him in recent times to restore the monuments of the ancients, so that we would not fall completely into barbarism.}}</ref>

The [[Eighth Council of Toledo]] (653) recorded its admiration of his character in these glowing terms: "The extraordinary doctor, the latest ornament of the Catholic Church, the most learned man of the latter ages, always to be named with reverence, Isidore". This tribute was endorsed by the [[Fifteenth Council of Toledo]], held in 688. Isidore was proclaimed a [[Doctor of the Church]] in 1722 by [[Pope Innocent XIII]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dumont |first1=Darl J |title=St. Isidore of Seville |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08186a.htm |website=New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=New Advent LLC |access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref>

Isidore was interred in [[Seville]]. His tomb represented an important place of veneration for the [[Mozarabs]] during the centuries after the Arab conquest of Visigothic Hispania. In the middle of the 11th century, with the division of [[Al Andalus]] into [[taifas]] and the strengthening of the Christian holdings in the Iberian peninsula, [[Ferdinand I of León and Castile]] found himself in a position to extract tribute from the fractured Arab states. In addition to money, [[Abbad II al-Mu'tadid]], the Abbadid ruler of [[Seville]] (1042–1069), agreed to turn over St. Isidore's remains to Ferdinand I.<ref>Father Alban Butler. "Saint Isidore, Bishop of Seville". Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. Saints.SQPN.com. 2 April 2013. Web. 9 August 2014. [http://saints.sqpn.com/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-isidore-bishop-of-seville/ Saints SQPN]</ref> A Catholic poet described al-Mutatid placing a brocaded cover over Isidore's sarcophagus, and remarked, "Now you are leaving here, revered Isidore. You know well how much your fame was mine!" Ferdinand had Isidore's remains reinterred in the then-recently constructed [[Basilica of San Isidoro]] in [[León, Spain|León]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=San Isidoro Royal Collegiate Church in León in León |url=https://www.spain.info/en/places-of-interest/royal-collegiate-church-san-isidoro-leon/ |access-date=2024-04-08 |website=Spain.info |language=en}}</ref> Today, many of his bones are buried in the cathedral of [[Murcia]], Spain.

== Criticisms and contemporary appraisal ==

Contemporary researchers have criticised Isidore—specifically, his work in the ''Etymologies.'' The historian Sandro D'Onofrio has argued that "job consisted here and there of restating, recapitulating, and sometimes simply transliterating both data and theories that lacked research and originality."<ref>Sandro D'Onofrio, "Isidore of Seville," in Henrik Legerlund, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy, 500–1500'' (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011), 574.
</ref>

In this view, Isidore—considering the large popularity his works enjoyed during the Middle Ages and the founding role he had in [[Scholasticism]]—would be less a brilliant thinker than a Christian gatekeeper making etymologies fit into the Christian worldview. "[H]e prescribed what they should mean," asserts D'Onofrio.

The researcher Victor Bruno has countered this argument. According to him, it was not the meaning of the ''Etymologies'', or of Isidore's work as a whole, to give a scientific or philological account of the words, as a modern researcher would do. "It is obvious that, from a material point of view," argues Bruno, "Isidore's practical knowledge on etymology, geography, and history are considered outdated; his methods, from the current academic and scientific standpoint, are questionable, and some of his conclusions are indeed incorrect. But Isidore is less concerned about being etymologically or philologically right than being ''ontologically'' right."<ref>Victor Bruno, "St. Isidore of Seville and Traditional Philosophy," ''Sacred Web'' 49 (2022): 99.
</ref>

Therefore, Isidore, despite living in the [[Early Middle Ages]], is an [[Mircea Eliade|archaic]] or "traditional" thinker. Being religiously inclined, Isidore would be concerned with the redeeming meaning of words and history, the ultimate quest of religions. The same researcher also found parallels between Isidore's interpretation of the word "year" (''annus'') and the meaning of the same words in the ''Jāiminīya-Upaniṣad-Brāmaṇa''.<ref>Bruno, "St. Isidore of Seville and Traditional Philosophy," 101.
</ref>

==Honours==
[[St. Isidore Island]] in [[Antarctica]] is named for him.

==See also==
* [[Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/April 4|Saint Isidore of Seville, patron saint archive]]
* [https://catholicism.org/patron-saint-for-the-internet-isidore-of-seville.html Catholicism.org - Patron Saint for the Internet, Isidore of Seville]

==References==
{{Reflist|26em}}

==Sources==
===Primary sources===
[[File:Isidorus - Chronica minora, alli anni domini MCCCCLXXXII Addi cinque di octobro - 512701.jpg|thumb|''Chronica minora'', 1482]]
* The [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Isidore/home.html ''Etymologiae''] (complete Latin text)
* Barney, Stephen A., Lewis, W.J., Beach, J.A. and Berghof, Oliver (translators). ''The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville.'' Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 2006. {{ISBN|0-521-83749-9|978-0-521-83749-1}}.
* Ziolkowski, Vernon P., ''The De Fide Catholica contra Iudaeos of Saint Isidorus, Bishop, Book 1'', Saint Louis University, PhD diss. (1982).
* Castro Caridad, Eva and Peña Fernández, Francisco (translators). "Isidoro de Sevilla. Sobre la fe católica contra los judíos". Sevilla: [[Universidad de Sevilla]], 2012. {{ISBN|978-84-472-1432-7}}.
* Throop, Priscilla, (translator). ''Isidore of Seville's Etymologies.'' Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2005, 2 vols. {{ISBN|1-4116-6523-6|978-1-4116-6523-1|1-4116-6526-0}}
* Throop, Priscilla, (translator). ''Isidore's Synonyms and Differences.'' (a translation of ''Synonyms'' or ''Lamentations of a Sinful Soul'', ''Book of Differences I'', and ''Book of Differences II'') Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2012 (EPub {{ISBN|978-1-105-82667-2}})
* [http://hos.ou.edu/galleries/03Medieval/Isidore/ Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113084810/https://hos.ou.edu/galleries//03Medieval/Isidore/ |date=13 November 2021 }} High resolution images of works by Isidore of Seville in .jpg and .tiff format.
* [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:22-dtl-0000025375 De natura rerum (Msc.Nat.1)] (On the Nature of Things) digitized by the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg.
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_136.html Lewis E 136 Carta pisana; Sententiae (Sentences) at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_137.html Lewis E 137 Sententiae (Sentences) at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0028/html/ms_484_018.html MS 484/18 Quaestiones in josue, judicum, regum, machabeis at OPenn]

===Secondary sources===
*Barrett, Graham. "God's Librarian: Isadore of Seville and His Literary Agenda," pp.&nbsp;42–100 in Fear, A. T., and Jamie Wood eds. ''Isidore of Seville and His Reception in the Early Middle Ages'': Transmitting and Transforming Knowledge. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016.
* Henderson, John. ''The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville: Truth from Words.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|0-521-86740-1}}.
* Herren, Michael. "On the Earliest Irish Acquaintance with Isidore of Seville." ''Visigothic Spain: New Approaches''. [[Edward James (historian)|James, Edward]] (ed). Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]], 1980. {{ISBN|0-19-822543-1}}.
* Englisch, Brigitte. "Die Artes liberales im frühen Mittelalter." Stuttgart, 1994.
* {{wikisource inline|list=
** {{cite DCBL |wstitle=Isidorus, archbp. of Seville |short=x |noicon=x }}
** {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Isidore of Seville |volume=14 |pages=871–872 |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{cite CE1913 |last=O'Connor |first=J.B. |wstitle=St. Isidore of Seville |volume=8 |short=x |noicon=x}}
}}

===Other material===
* [http://www.st-isidore.org The Order of Saint Isidore of Seville], st-isidore.org
* Jones, Peter. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3654846/Patron-saint-of-the-internet.html "Patron saint of the internet"], telegraph.co.uk, 27 August 2006 (Review of ''The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville'', Cambridge University Press, 2006)
* Shachtman, Noah. [http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2002/01/49995?currentPage=all "Searchin' for the Surfer's Saint"], wired.com, 25 January 2002

==External links==
* Carolyn Embach, [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315663902_On_the_Nature_of_Things_De_Natura_Rerum_by_Isidore_of_Seville_ca_560-636_AD_Translated_by_Carolyn_Embach_1969 ResearchGate: English translation of Isidore of Seville, De Natura Rerum, ca. 560–636 AD] . (Carolyn S. E. Wares aka Carolyn Embach, translator, 1969)
* {{cite journal
	| last = Lloyd Dusenbury
	| first = David
	| date = 2017
	| title = ''Ait enim Lucretius''. An affirmation of the Epicurean concept of time in Isidore of Seville's ''Etymologiae''
	| journal = Antiquité Tardive
	| volume = 25
	| issn = 1250-7334
	| pages = 341–351
	| doi = 10.1484/J.AT.5.114866
}}
* {{cite encyclopedia|first=J. T.|last=Crouch|encyclopedia=[[New Catholic Encyclopedia]]|title=Isidore of Seville, St.|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/isidore-seville-st|volume=7: Hol–Jub|year=2003|edition=2|publisher=[[Thomson Gale]]|location=Detroit|pages=602–605}}
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
* {{wikisource author-inline}}
* {{commons category-inline|Isidore of Seville}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Isidore of Seville}}
[[Category:560 births]]
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