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The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville

The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville

The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville

Truth from Words
John Henderson, University of Cambridge
June 2010
Available
Paperback
9780521144346
$53.00
USD
Paperback
USD
Hardback

    In his Etymologiae, St Isidore of Seville put together a systematic survey of the world in the form of a vast thesaurus of Latin vocabulary, which supplies a more or less accepted or fanciful etymology for each term. It became one of the most influential books of European culture through the whole medieval period. This Latin 'Roget' is traditionally used as a reference work, accessed through an elaborate index system. In this book Professor Henderson, the most challenging critic writing on Latin literature and Roman culture, presents a full reading of all twenty books of the Etymologiae, showing how the material is sequenced so that its reader is treated to a thoroughgoing education in the world as it was apprehended in Jewish, Graeco-Roman and Christian culture. All Latin, including etymologies, is translated.

    • Offering a comprehensive reading of the whole of the Etymologiae, the Latin power book that delivered the classical-Christian world to the Middle Ages
    • Translates all Latin, including the etymologies, for which a full index is provided
    • Written by one of the leading critics of Latin literature and Roman culture

    Reviews & endorsements

    "...not only offers an important contribution to scholarship on Isidore, but shows how classicists can and should expand the borders of Latin studies into new fields and methods." --BMCR

    See more reviews

    Product details

    June 2010
    Paperback
    9780521144346
    248 pages
    229 × 152 × 14 mm
    0.37kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • List of figures
    • Preface: when it's ajar
    • Introduction
    • Part I. Preliminaries:
    • 1. Prefatory correspondence and dedication
    • 2. Index and referencing system
    • 3. Conclusion
    • Part II. Reading the Etymologiae
    • Section 1. Primary Education:
    • 4. Proem: seven at one blow
    • 5. Grammar: the alphabet
    • 6. Grammar proper
    • 7. Rhetoric
    • 8. Dialectic or rationalist philosophy
    • Section 2. Secondary Education:
    • 9. Arithmetic
    • 10. Geometry
    • 11. Music
    • 12. Astronomy
    • 13. Medicine
    • 14. Law and history
    • 15. Scripture and Christian duties
    • 16. God, the angels, the saints
    • 17. Church, schism, paganism
    • 18. Languages, populations, societies
    • 19. Epithets: a thesaurus
    • 20. Mankind and monsters
    • 21. Living creatures
    • 22. World survey (water)
    • 23. Earth survey (land)
    • 24. Building, town, and country
    • 25. Rocks and metals
    • 26. Agriculture and botany
    • 27. War and recreation
    • 28. Ships, construction and decoration, clothing
    • 29. Food and drink, packaging and transport, tools and harness
    • Conclusion: after words
    • Appendix
    • Bibliography
    • Index locorum
    • Etymologies
    • General index.
      Author
    • John Henderson , University of Cambridge