Iberian Fathers, Volume 2

List of the Books of Isidore

LIST OF THE BOOKS OF ISIDORE, COMPILED BY BRAULIO, BISHOP OF SARAGOSSN (Renotatio Isidori a Braulione Caesaraugustano episcopo edita) Isidore, a man of eminence, bishop of the church at Seville, successor and brother of Bishop Leander, flourished from the time of the Emperor Mauritius and King Recared; in him antiquity gained some new fame for itself, or rather our age saw in him an image of antiquity, for he was a man well trained in every kind of locution, so that the quality of his words made him adaptable for one who was learned and for one who had no knowledge, famous both for suiting his words to his subject and for his incomparable eloquence. It can now be very easy for any prudent reader to judge how great his knowledge was from his varied interests and carefully written works. I have set down the following comments about those works which have come to my notice. He published: (I) Two books of Differences, in which he made subtle distinctions between the meanings of words which are commonly confused in practice. (2) One book of Introductions, in which he described, with brief notes, the contents of each book of Holy Scripture. (3) One book On the Lives and Deaths of the Fathers, in which, by means of brief sentences, he set forth the deeds, greatness, death, and burial of each. (4) Two books of Offices for his brother, Bishop Fulgentius, in which he revealed the origin of offices and why each one is 1 Cf. Introduction, p. 8. 140 LISTS OF BOOKS OF ISIDORE 141 performed in the Church of God, interpreting with his own pen, but not omitting the authority of the elders. (5) Two books of Synonyms, in which reason appears to exhort the soul to consolation and to the hope of obtaining pardon. (6) One book to King Sisebut On the Nature of Things, in which he settled some obscure points about the elements after investigating both ecclesiastical teachers and philosophers. (7) One book On Numbers, in which he touched, in part, upon the science of arithmetic to explain the numbers inserted in ecclesiastical writings. (8) One book On the Names of the Law and the Gospels, in which he explained the mystical significance of the persons mentioned. (9) One book of Heresies, in which he followed the ex-, amples of our elders and collected scattered topics as briefly as possible. (10) Three books of Sentences, adorned with choice selections from the books of Pope Gregory's Morals. (11) One book of Chronicles from the beginning of the world to his own time, collected with extreme brevity. (12) Two books Against the Jews at the request of his sister, Florentina, a nun of saintly life, in which he expressed, by quotation from the Law and the Prophets, approval of everything which the Catholic faith believes. (13) One book of Famous Men, to which I have added the present remarks.2 (14) One book of Monastic Rule, which he most properly tempered for use in his own country and to suit the spirits of the weak. (15) One book On the Origin of the Goths, and the Kingdom of the Sueves, and also the History of the Vandals. (16) Two books of Questions, which furnish the reader with much material from ancient commentators. 2 This is the evidence that the List was intended as a supplementary chapter to Isidore's De viris illustribus, 142 BRAULIO OF SARAGOSSA (17) A manuscript of Etymologies, of extremely large size, set off by him by subject matter rather than in books; because he wrote it at my request, 1 divided it into fifteen3 books, although he left it unfinished. This work is suitable to every branch of philosophy; whoever reads and meditates upon it frequently will have and deserve a reputation for knowledge of both divine and human affairs. It is packed with elegant statements of many kinds, collected in concise manner; from it, there is practically nothing that cannot be learned. There are many other smaller works of this man, as well as some well-embellished inscriptions in the church of God, for God created him in recent times to support His Church after so many disasters in Spain. (1 presume it was to restore the monuments of the ancients, lest we grow dull from boorish rusticity.) Not unfittingly may we apply to him the words of the philosopher who...