Chapter 32

[199]Term left undefined.[200]“Which of itself offers no satisfactory ground for defence but seeks for defence beyond its own limits.” 2, 5, 5.[201]“When the accused does not deny the act but demands that it be pardoned.” 2, 5, 6.[202]“When the deed is confessed but guilt is denied” on the ground of ignorance, accident, or necessity. 2, 5, 8.[203]“When the accused confesses that he has committed the wrong and has done so purposely, and still demands that he be pardoned, which kind can be of very rare occurrence.” 2, 5, 8.[204]“When the accused endeavors energetically to divert the charge made against him from himself and his guilt to another.” 2, 5, 6.[205]“When it is urged that there is justification because another had committed a wrong before.” 2, 5, 7.[206]“When some other honorable or expedient act of another is alleged, for the accomplishing of which the act specified in the accusation is asserted to have been done.” 2, 5, 7.[207]“In which there is discussion of what is just in view of civil custom and equity.” 2, 5, 5.[208]“When the nature of the case is inquired into; and since the dispute is concerned with the real meaning and classification of the matter at stake, this is called theconstitutio generalis.” 2, 5, 3. This is the general heading under which all the sub-heads classified underfinisshould have been placed. Isidore made a mistake in copying from Cassiodorus, in whom the classification is correct.[209]“When the case depends on this, that it is not the proper person who brings the action, or that it is not before the proper court, at the proper time, according to the proper law, charging the proper crime, demanding the proper punishment.” 2, 5, 4.[210]“When the words seem to be at variance with the intention of the writer.” 2, 5, 9.[211]“When two or more laws are perceived to be in conflict with one another.” 2, 5, 9.[212]“When what is written seems to have two or more meanings.” 2, 5, 10.[213]“When from what is written another thing also which is not written is inferred.” 2, 5, 10.[214]“When inquiry is made as to what is the force of a word.” 2, 5, 10.[215]A division applying only to thegenus deliberativum.[216]Six are usually given. Cassiodorus hasexordium,narratio,partitio,confirmatio,reprehensio,conclusio. Halm,Rhetores Latini Minores, p. 497.[217]An analysis of cases according to the emotional effect they are likely to have on the audience.[218]“Ut admirentur (judices) quenquam ad defensionem eius accedere.” Halm, 316, 34, from Sulpitius Victor.[219]The irregular syllogism. Each sub-head is exhaustively analyzed.[220]Giving the lie as conclusion of an irregular syllogism.[221]A short account of the nature of law. This sub-head is not found in the text-books on rhetoric before Isidore’s time.[222]In the use of letters, words, and sentences.[223]Figurae verborum et sententiarum.Samples of the former areanadiplosis,paradiastole,antimetabole,exoche; of the latter (forty-seven in all),coenonesis,parrhesia,aposiopesis,aetiologia,epitrochasmus. Cf. p. 107, note.[224]H. W. Blunt, Art. “Logic,” inEncycl. Brit., 11th ed. See also Rashdall,Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages(Oxford, 1895), vol. i, p. 36.[225]It was thought that the Latin vocabulary was not well suited to the expression of the ideas of logic.Cf.Martianus Capella,De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii(ed. Eyssenhardt) where Dialectica is about to speak: “Ac mox Dialectica, quanquam parum digne latine loqui posse crederetur, tamen promptiore fiducia restrictisque quadam obtutus vibratione luminibus etiam ante verba formidabilis, sic exorsa.”[226]It is true that the works of Boethius, which were not school texts, served to revivify the subject, but his influence was very slight in this respect until long after Isidore’s time. M. Manitius,Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters(München, 1911), pp. 29–32.[227]2, 26, 15.Cf.Cass. Migne,P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1170.[228]2, 27, 1.Cf.Cass. Migne,P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1170.[229]2, 28, 22.Cf.Cass. Migne,P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1173.[230]The substance of Isidore’sDe Dialecticais taken chiefly from Cassiodorus. A number of passages seem to be based on Martianus Capella: for example,Etym., 2, 31, 1, on Martianus Capella (Eyssenhardt), 118, 8 ff.;Etym., 2, 31, 4–5, on M. C., 118, 15–25;Etym., 2, 31, 7, on M. C., 120, 9 ff.[231]Isidore’s ignorance of Greek has been inferred from his use of the forms,isagogaeandperihermeniae. Seep. 36.[232]Du Breul hastheologia; Arevalus,theorica.[233]This passage is copied from Cassiodorus and is not an indication that Isidore had read the work of Aristotle that is mentioned.[234]A recommendation copied word for word from Cassiodorus.[235]“The cumulative evidence is surely very strong that the alphabetic numerals were first employed in Alexandria early in the third century B.C.” J. Gow,A Short History of Greek Mathematics(Cambridge, 1884), p. 48.[236]We have in Isidore, for example, the termsnumerus trigonus,numerus quadratus,numerus quinquangulus, andlinealis,superficialis, andcircularis numerus.[237]Cajori,Hist. of Math., p. 72.[238]Gow, speaking of the Greek ἀριθμητική, says: “Its aim was entirely different from that of the ordinary calculator, and it was natural that the philosopher who sought in numbers to find the plan on which the creator worked, should begin to regard with contempt the merchant who wanted only to know how many sardines at ten for an obol he could buy for a talent.” Gow,op. cit., p. 72.[239]Cantor believes that the use of the abacus had been forgotten before Isidore’s time,cf.“calculator a calculis, id est a lapillis minutis quos antiqui in manu tenentes numeros componebant.”Etym., 10, 43. See Cantor,Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik(Leipzig, 1894–1900), vol. i, p. 774.[240]Isidore adds to the account as found in Cassiodorus a few remarks about numbers in the Scriptures, some derivations of numbers, and the sections on the means and on infinity.[241]Du Breul hasmagnitudinis et formarum; Arevalo,magnitudinis formarum.[242]This derivation points to a softcindecem.[243]Six was regarded as a perfect number, because it is equal to the sum of all its factors.[244]Pariter par, et pariter impar, et impariter par et impariter impar.Since these all profess to be divisions of even number, the word odd is not used in the translation.[245]To remind the reader of Isidore’s notation Roman numerals are kept wherever he used them.[246]The division into even, odd, and numbers sharing the characteristics of even and odd numbers goes back to Nicomachus. It is not a logical division, as the second class contains the third. See Gow, p. 90.[247]Superflui, diminuti, perfecti.[248]The examples are found in Du Breul. They do not appear in Arevalo.[249]Cantor,Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, vol. i, p. 521.[250]The authenticity of the work on geometry that has been handed down under Boethius’ name is questioned. (See Cantor,ibid., pp. 536et seq.) It contains the complete proof of only three of Euclid’s propositions. It also contains calculations of areas of geometrical figures. See edition of Friedlein (Leipzig, 1867).[251]Cf.Martianus Capella’s definition: “Geometria vocor quod permeatam crebro admensamque tellurem eiusque figuram, magnitudinem, locum, partes et stadia possim cum suis rationibus explicare neque ulla sit in totius terrae diversitate partitio quam non memoris cursu descriptionis absolvam.” Eyssenhardt, 198, 30.[252]The whole of Isidore’sDe Geometriais here given, with the exception of a few passages that are untranslatable. It is given as a whole to enforce attention to the loss of the traditional content, partial or complete, which was so striking a feature of all the members of the quadrivium in early medieval times.[253]Hujus ars disciplinae.Arsmay be equal to ‘hand-book’ here.[254]Schmidt,Questiones de musicis scriptoribus Romanis, imprimis de Cassiodoro et Isidoro(Darmstadt, 1899). This dissertation is in part an examination of the question whether the Roman writers associated music with grammar or the mathematical sciences in their enumerations of educational subjects. It contains a useful list of passages bearing on the seven liberal arts.[255]Five definitions of music are given by Isidore, two making no allusion to its mathematical character. They are as follows:“Musica est peritia modulationis sono cantuque consistens.”Etym., 3, 15, 1.“Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui inveniuntur in sonis.”Etym., 3, Preface.“Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui ad aliquid sunt his qui inveniuntur in sonis.”Etym., 2, 24, 15.“Musica quae in carminibus cantibusque consistit.”Etym., 1, 2, 2.“Musica est ars spectabilis voce vel gestu, habens in se numerorum ac soni certam dimensionem cum scientia perfectae modulationis. Haec constat ex tribus modis, id est, sono, verbis, numeris.”Diff., ii, cap. 39.[256]Etym., 3, 17, 1.[257]Etym., 3, 15, 1.[258]C. Schmidt,op. cit., after a detailed comparison of passages, concludes that Isidore did not obtain his material forDe Musicafrom Cassiodorus or Augustine, but that all three go back independently to an original work produced by an unknown Christian writer. However, the numerous identical passages in Cassiodorus and Isidore would indicate that the latter had used the former at least as a guide in plagiarism. See Schmidt, pp. 26–52, and compare Dressel,De Isidori Originum Fontibus(Turin, 1874), pp. 5 and 6.[259]Woodridge in theOxford History of Music(Oxford, 1901), vol. i, p. 33, note, says of Isidore’sDe Musica, that it “clearly reveals the complete ignorance of his time. His dicta upon music are chiefly crude and misleading paraphrases from Cassiodorus and others, from which it is evident that the signification of the terms employed had completely escaped him. Modes are not mentioned by him [butcf.3, 20, 7] and keys and genera are confounded together.”[260]Qui voce propria canunt.[261]The pandura was a stringed instrument! In the succeeding sections these instruments are briefly described, and the sambuca, another stringed instrument, is also included.[262]Other instruments mentioned arepsalterum,lyra,barbitos,phoenix,pectis,indica,aliae quadrata forma vel trigonali,margaritum,ballematica,tintinnabulum,symphonia.[263]The general sense of the passage: “ut sine ipsius perfectione etiam homo symphoniis carens non consistat.” 3, 23, 2. Seep. 65.[264]J. L. E. Dreyer,History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler(Cambridge, 1906), p. 141.[265]See Introduction,p. 51.[266]Tannery in hisRecherches sur l’histoire de l’astronomie ancienne(Paris, 1893), has an interesting discussion of the successive names of the science of the heavenly bodies. He attributes the revival of the older term astronomy about the end of the third century A.D., to the association of the term astrology with divination. In Varro the name used was astrology.[267]3, 71, 21–40. See pp.152–4.[268]Du Breul hasPtolemaeus, rex Alexandriae.[269]The canons by which Ptolemy calculated the position of the planets. Isidore makes no further reference to them.[270]For map showing theclimatasee Konrad Miller,Die ältesten Weltkarten(Stuttgart, 1895), vol. iii, p. 127.[271]This order is repeated in 13, 6.[272]This passage indicates Isidore’s belief in a flat earth. See pp.51–54.[273]Isidore does not observe the distinctions he lays down here. He does not seem to have known that Orion and Bootes were constellations.[274]Du Breul has in addition:latitudo intelligitur per signiferum, longitudo per proprium excursum.[275]The celestial equator.[276]Subjects of medical interest are treated also in book xi (parts of the body, monstrous births, etc.), in book xii (healing springs), and in book xxii (diet). There is also a chapter (39) on pestilence inDe Natura Rerum.[277]Galen was one of these.[278]Max Neuberger,Geschichte der Medizin(Stuttgart, 1906–1911), vol. i, pp. 310–321.[279]Ibid., vol. ii, p. 61et seq.[280]Neuberger,op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 240–278 for an account of medicine in the early middle ages.[281]This school was really founded in the first century B.C. According to it disease consists in a contraction or relaxation of the pores (strictus statusorlaxus status). Nothing but the supposed general condition of the body was of importance. Neuberger,Geschichte der Medizin, vol. 1, pp. 303–309.[282]A school that appeared in the third century B.C., and corresponded in medicine to the skeptical movement in philosophy. Alla priorireasoning was rejected.Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 276–284.[283]The classical school of medicine founded by Hippocrates. Isidore fails to mention the Pneumatici and the Eclectici (ibid., vol. 1, pp. 327–336), other prominent schools of medicine.[284]The derivation which Isidore had in mind was probably ζῆν (to live).[285]The sentence is a confused one. Isidore probably had in mind the derivation ofcholerafrom χολή and ῥέω.[286]Arteriae.Compare “Sanguis per venas in omne corpus diffunditur et spiritus per arterias.” Cicero,N. D., 2, 55, 138.[287]Referring to the idea that the elements could pass into one another. Seep. 60.[288]Du Breul hasinsania daemonum.[289]A kind of leprosy.[290]De initio medicinae.[291]TheDe Legibusconstitutes Isidore’s formal account of law. In bk. ii a chapter is devoted to the subject of law as a sub-division of rhetoric; it consists of definitions of general terms. In bk. ix there are chapters on citizens, and on degrees of kinship, which have a legal bearing.Cf.also bk. xviii, 15.[292]Considering the intellectual stagnation of the time, it seems quite possible that the Justinian code was unheard of wherever it was not actually the law of the land. Vinogradoff gives the conclusion of modern scholarship as to this when he says (Roman Law in Medieval Europe, London, 1909, p. 8): “TheCorpus Jurisof Justinian, which contains the main body of law for later ages, including our own, was accepted and even known only in the East and in those parts of Italy which had been reconquered by Justinian’s generals. The rest of the western provinces still clung to the tradition of the preceding period, culminating in the official code of Theodosius II (A.D. 437).” Compare also Conrat,Die Epitome Exactis Regibus, Introd., pp. 248–257; Flach,Droit Romain au Moyen Age(Paris, 1890), especially pp. 52–57. Conrat, in hisGeschichte der Quellen und Literatur des Römischen Rechts in Früheren Mittelalter, pp. 150–153, maintains, first, that there is no trace of evidence elsewhere in Isidore’s works, of a knowledge of the existence of the Justinian code; and, second, that the internal evidence in theDe Legibuspoints to the use of other sources. See also Ureña,Historia Crítica de la Literatura Jurídica Española(Madrid, 1897), vol 1, p. 294.[293]TheDe Legibusshould not be regarded as a text-book for a law school, but for the subject of law as forming a minor part of the preparation of a priest. See Introd.,p. 87, and Flach,op. cit., the fourth section of which (pp. 104–128) deals with the teaching of law from the sixth to the eleventh century.[294]For an account of separate MSS. of Isidore’sDe Legibus(often containing also legal matter from bks. ii, ix and xviii), see Joseph Tardif,Un Abrégé Juridique des Etymologies d’Isidore de SevilleinMélanges Julien Havet(Paris, 1895).[295]Communis omnium possessio.[296]Holding the consulate for part of the year only.[297]Readinglegisforeius. See 2, 10.[298]See Muirhead,The Law of Rome, p. 249.[299]In his “On Times,” Isidore is apparently condensing what he has written elsewhere. The first part of it, which gives an account of the divisions of time—the moment, hour, day, week, month, year, and so forth—is drawn fromDe Natura Rerum, which in turn was based on Suetonius, Solinus, Hyginus, of the heathen writers, and Ambrosius, Clement, and Augustine, of the Christian. (Seep. 46.) In the second part, which consists of a brief chronology, Isidore condensed hisChronicon, which was drawn from Eusebius as translated and modified by Jerome, and supplemented by the later work of Prosper, Victor Tunnensis, and Joannis Biclarensis. The sources of theChroniconhave been thoroughly discussed by H. Hertzberg,Ueber die Chronicon des Isidors von SevillainForschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte(Göttingen, 1875), vol. xv.[300]At the same time chronology was incidentally made to show in a statistical way what a great priority Hebrew civilization had over its pagan rivals.Cf.pp.79,80.[301]In some respects Isidore’s chronology is peculiar, and differs from any known chronology of world-history of the time. For example, where Hieronymus gives the time from the flood to Abraham as 1072 years, Isidore gives it as 942 years; and where Africanus put the birth of Christ in the year 5500 of the world, Isidore put it in 5197. See Hertzberg, p. 376. Again, only the full years are noticed, the fractions of the older chronologies being either counted as integers or ignored, though this is not done according to any system. For table showing irregularities here, seeibid., p. 325, notes 3 and 4.[302]E.g.De Civitate Dei, xxii, 30.[303]5, 38, 5.[304]Hora(hour) andora(coast or border) are confused.[305]A communionis temperamento.[306]So in the case of summer, autumn, and winter.[307]The reference in “complex history” (complicem historiam) is to the parallel sets of chronological tables of the histories of different peoples given by Eusebius.[308]Sufficient of Isidore’s chronology is translated to give an idea of its method and of the events mentioned in it. His dates for the six ages of the world are as follows:First age0–2242.Second age2242–3184.Third age3184–4125.Fourth age4125–4610.Fifth age4610–5155.Sixth age5155–?The world according to Isidore’s chronology was in its 5825th year. Although Isidore professes to start the sixth age with the birth of Christ, he really starts it with the beginning of the reign of Augustus. SeeChronicon; Migne,P. L., vol. 83, col. 1038.[309]These three books are not grouped by Isidore under one name. There apparently was no name in existence by which to designate them, astheologiawas not applied, commonly at least, to Christian doctrine before Abelard’s time.[310]The sources of bks. vi-viii differ from those of the remaining books of theEtymologiesin being almost exclusively Christian. Isidore himself, in his non-secular writings, covers more fully the subjects which he here treats in a summary fashion. Compare bk. vi, chaps. 1 and 2, withProemia in Libros Veteris ac Novi Testamenti; bk. vii, chaps. 6 and 7, withExpositiones Mysticorum SacramentorumandDe Ortu et Obitu Patrum; bk. viii, chaps. 1–5, withSententiarum Libri Tres; bk. vi, chap. 19, and bk. vii, chaps. 12, 13, withDe Ecclesiasticis Officiis.[311]See pp.43,86.[312]Of the alphabet.[313]This passage is preceded by a table indicating the date of Easter for 95 years (627–721). It is clear that although Isidore was not acquainted with the plan of Dionysius Exiguus to institute the Christian era, he was acquainted with the essentials of his Easter table. Dionysius had given the dates for Easter in five 19-year cycles, dating from 525; in Isidore this is continued for the years 627 to 721. Isidore’s table consists merely of parallel columns of the days of the month and corresponding days of the moon on which Easter fell. Each date is marked C or E, abbreviations forcommunis annusandembolismuswhich describe respectively the year of twelve and that of thirteen lunar months in use in the Hebrew chronology. A further abbreviation, B, stands opposite each fourth year, to mark the leap-years. The years are not numbered according to any era, and the assignment of dates, 627–721, is inferred from the dates given for Easter. See Ideler,Chronologie, vol. ii, p. 290 (Berlin, 1826). Isidore does not make it plain that he understood the mathematics of the computation of Easter. It is of interest that in 643 the fourth synod of Toledo passed an enactment to secure a common observance of Easter throughout the Spanish churches, no doubt according to this Easter-table. See Gams,Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien(Regensburg, 1874), vol. ii, part 2, p. 94.[314]It is worth noticing that in bks. vii and viii Isidore gives a list of the whole hierarchy of supernatural and human existences beginning with God and ending with the devil. An inspection of the order of subjects will suggest to the reader that he was arranging them in order of merit. If this supposition is correct, the table of contents of these two books is a very significant one, as throwing light upon Isidore’s scale of values for the divine, the human and the demonic.

[199]Term left undefined.

[200]“Which of itself offers no satisfactory ground for defence but seeks for defence beyond its own limits.” 2, 5, 5.

[201]“When the accused does not deny the act but demands that it be pardoned.” 2, 5, 6.

[202]“When the deed is confessed but guilt is denied” on the ground of ignorance, accident, or necessity. 2, 5, 8.

[203]“When the accused confesses that he has committed the wrong and has done so purposely, and still demands that he be pardoned, which kind can be of very rare occurrence.” 2, 5, 8.

[204]“When the accused endeavors energetically to divert the charge made against him from himself and his guilt to another.” 2, 5, 6.

[205]“When it is urged that there is justification because another had committed a wrong before.” 2, 5, 7.

[206]“When some other honorable or expedient act of another is alleged, for the accomplishing of which the act specified in the accusation is asserted to have been done.” 2, 5, 7.

[207]“In which there is discussion of what is just in view of civil custom and equity.” 2, 5, 5.

[208]“When the nature of the case is inquired into; and since the dispute is concerned with the real meaning and classification of the matter at stake, this is called theconstitutio generalis.” 2, 5, 3. This is the general heading under which all the sub-heads classified underfinisshould have been placed. Isidore made a mistake in copying from Cassiodorus, in whom the classification is correct.

[209]“When the case depends on this, that it is not the proper person who brings the action, or that it is not before the proper court, at the proper time, according to the proper law, charging the proper crime, demanding the proper punishment.” 2, 5, 4.

[210]“When the words seem to be at variance with the intention of the writer.” 2, 5, 9.

[211]“When two or more laws are perceived to be in conflict with one another.” 2, 5, 9.

[212]“When what is written seems to have two or more meanings.” 2, 5, 10.

[213]“When from what is written another thing also which is not written is inferred.” 2, 5, 10.

[214]“When inquiry is made as to what is the force of a word.” 2, 5, 10.

[215]A division applying only to thegenus deliberativum.

[216]Six are usually given. Cassiodorus hasexordium,narratio,partitio,confirmatio,reprehensio,conclusio. Halm,Rhetores Latini Minores, p. 497.

[217]An analysis of cases according to the emotional effect they are likely to have on the audience.

[218]“Ut admirentur (judices) quenquam ad defensionem eius accedere.” Halm, 316, 34, from Sulpitius Victor.

[219]The irregular syllogism. Each sub-head is exhaustively analyzed.

[220]Giving the lie as conclusion of an irregular syllogism.

[221]A short account of the nature of law. This sub-head is not found in the text-books on rhetoric before Isidore’s time.

[222]In the use of letters, words, and sentences.

[223]Figurae verborum et sententiarum.Samples of the former areanadiplosis,paradiastole,antimetabole,exoche; of the latter (forty-seven in all),coenonesis,parrhesia,aposiopesis,aetiologia,epitrochasmus. Cf. p. 107, note.

[224]H. W. Blunt, Art. “Logic,” inEncycl. Brit., 11th ed. See also Rashdall,Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages(Oxford, 1895), vol. i, p. 36.

[225]It was thought that the Latin vocabulary was not well suited to the expression of the ideas of logic.Cf.Martianus Capella,De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii(ed. Eyssenhardt) where Dialectica is about to speak: “Ac mox Dialectica, quanquam parum digne latine loqui posse crederetur, tamen promptiore fiducia restrictisque quadam obtutus vibratione luminibus etiam ante verba formidabilis, sic exorsa.”

[226]It is true that the works of Boethius, which were not school texts, served to revivify the subject, but his influence was very slight in this respect until long after Isidore’s time. M. Manitius,Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters(München, 1911), pp. 29–32.

[227]2, 26, 15.Cf.Cass. Migne,P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1170.

[228]2, 27, 1.Cf.Cass. Migne,P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1170.

[229]2, 28, 22.Cf.Cass. Migne,P. L., vol. lxx, col. 1173.

[230]The substance of Isidore’sDe Dialecticais taken chiefly from Cassiodorus. A number of passages seem to be based on Martianus Capella: for example,Etym., 2, 31, 1, on Martianus Capella (Eyssenhardt), 118, 8 ff.;Etym., 2, 31, 4–5, on M. C., 118, 15–25;Etym., 2, 31, 7, on M. C., 120, 9 ff.

[231]Isidore’s ignorance of Greek has been inferred from his use of the forms,isagogaeandperihermeniae. Seep. 36.

[232]Du Breul hastheologia; Arevalus,theorica.

[233]This passage is copied from Cassiodorus and is not an indication that Isidore had read the work of Aristotle that is mentioned.

[234]A recommendation copied word for word from Cassiodorus.

[235]“The cumulative evidence is surely very strong that the alphabetic numerals were first employed in Alexandria early in the third century B.C.” J. Gow,A Short History of Greek Mathematics(Cambridge, 1884), p. 48.

[236]We have in Isidore, for example, the termsnumerus trigonus,numerus quadratus,numerus quinquangulus, andlinealis,superficialis, andcircularis numerus.

[237]Cajori,Hist. of Math., p. 72.

[238]Gow, speaking of the Greek ἀριθμητική, says: “Its aim was entirely different from that of the ordinary calculator, and it was natural that the philosopher who sought in numbers to find the plan on which the creator worked, should begin to regard with contempt the merchant who wanted only to know how many sardines at ten for an obol he could buy for a talent.” Gow,op. cit., p. 72.

[239]Cantor believes that the use of the abacus had been forgotten before Isidore’s time,cf.“calculator a calculis, id est a lapillis minutis quos antiqui in manu tenentes numeros componebant.”Etym., 10, 43. See Cantor,Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik(Leipzig, 1894–1900), vol. i, p. 774.

[240]Isidore adds to the account as found in Cassiodorus a few remarks about numbers in the Scriptures, some derivations of numbers, and the sections on the means and on infinity.

[241]Du Breul hasmagnitudinis et formarum; Arevalo,magnitudinis formarum.

[242]This derivation points to a softcindecem.

[243]Six was regarded as a perfect number, because it is equal to the sum of all its factors.

[244]Pariter par, et pariter impar, et impariter par et impariter impar.Since these all profess to be divisions of even number, the word odd is not used in the translation.

[245]To remind the reader of Isidore’s notation Roman numerals are kept wherever he used them.

[246]The division into even, odd, and numbers sharing the characteristics of even and odd numbers goes back to Nicomachus. It is not a logical division, as the second class contains the third. See Gow, p. 90.

[247]Superflui, diminuti, perfecti.

[248]The examples are found in Du Breul. They do not appear in Arevalo.

[249]Cantor,Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, vol. i, p. 521.

[250]The authenticity of the work on geometry that has been handed down under Boethius’ name is questioned. (See Cantor,ibid., pp. 536et seq.) It contains the complete proof of only three of Euclid’s propositions. It also contains calculations of areas of geometrical figures. See edition of Friedlein (Leipzig, 1867).

[251]Cf.Martianus Capella’s definition: “Geometria vocor quod permeatam crebro admensamque tellurem eiusque figuram, magnitudinem, locum, partes et stadia possim cum suis rationibus explicare neque ulla sit in totius terrae diversitate partitio quam non memoris cursu descriptionis absolvam.” Eyssenhardt, 198, 30.

[252]The whole of Isidore’sDe Geometriais here given, with the exception of a few passages that are untranslatable. It is given as a whole to enforce attention to the loss of the traditional content, partial or complete, which was so striking a feature of all the members of the quadrivium in early medieval times.

[253]Hujus ars disciplinae.Arsmay be equal to ‘hand-book’ here.

[254]Schmidt,Questiones de musicis scriptoribus Romanis, imprimis de Cassiodoro et Isidoro(Darmstadt, 1899). This dissertation is in part an examination of the question whether the Roman writers associated music with grammar or the mathematical sciences in their enumerations of educational subjects. It contains a useful list of passages bearing on the seven liberal arts.

[255]Five definitions of music are given by Isidore, two making no allusion to its mathematical character. They are as follows:“Musica est peritia modulationis sono cantuque consistens.”Etym., 3, 15, 1.“Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui inveniuntur in sonis.”Etym., 3, Preface.“Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui ad aliquid sunt his qui inveniuntur in sonis.”Etym., 2, 24, 15.“Musica quae in carminibus cantibusque consistit.”Etym., 1, 2, 2.“Musica est ars spectabilis voce vel gestu, habens in se numerorum ac soni certam dimensionem cum scientia perfectae modulationis. Haec constat ex tribus modis, id est, sono, verbis, numeris.”Diff., ii, cap. 39.

[255]Five definitions of music are given by Isidore, two making no allusion to its mathematical character. They are as follows:

“Musica est peritia modulationis sono cantuque consistens.”Etym., 3, 15, 1.

“Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui inveniuntur in sonis.”Etym., 3, Preface.

“Musica est disciplina quae de numeris loquitur qui ad aliquid sunt his qui inveniuntur in sonis.”Etym., 2, 24, 15.

“Musica quae in carminibus cantibusque consistit.”Etym., 1, 2, 2.

“Musica est ars spectabilis voce vel gestu, habens in se numerorum ac soni certam dimensionem cum scientia perfectae modulationis. Haec constat ex tribus modis, id est, sono, verbis, numeris.”Diff., ii, cap. 39.

[256]Etym., 3, 17, 1.

[257]Etym., 3, 15, 1.

[258]C. Schmidt,op. cit., after a detailed comparison of passages, concludes that Isidore did not obtain his material forDe Musicafrom Cassiodorus or Augustine, but that all three go back independently to an original work produced by an unknown Christian writer. However, the numerous identical passages in Cassiodorus and Isidore would indicate that the latter had used the former at least as a guide in plagiarism. See Schmidt, pp. 26–52, and compare Dressel,De Isidori Originum Fontibus(Turin, 1874), pp. 5 and 6.

[259]Woodridge in theOxford History of Music(Oxford, 1901), vol. i, p. 33, note, says of Isidore’sDe Musica, that it “clearly reveals the complete ignorance of his time. His dicta upon music are chiefly crude and misleading paraphrases from Cassiodorus and others, from which it is evident that the signification of the terms employed had completely escaped him. Modes are not mentioned by him [butcf.3, 20, 7] and keys and genera are confounded together.”

[260]Qui voce propria canunt.

[261]The pandura was a stringed instrument! In the succeeding sections these instruments are briefly described, and the sambuca, another stringed instrument, is also included.

[262]Other instruments mentioned arepsalterum,lyra,barbitos,phoenix,pectis,indica,aliae quadrata forma vel trigonali,margaritum,ballematica,tintinnabulum,symphonia.

[263]The general sense of the passage: “ut sine ipsius perfectione etiam homo symphoniis carens non consistat.” 3, 23, 2. Seep. 65.

[264]J. L. E. Dreyer,History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler(Cambridge, 1906), p. 141.

[265]See Introduction,p. 51.

[266]Tannery in hisRecherches sur l’histoire de l’astronomie ancienne(Paris, 1893), has an interesting discussion of the successive names of the science of the heavenly bodies. He attributes the revival of the older term astronomy about the end of the third century A.D., to the association of the term astrology with divination. In Varro the name used was astrology.

[267]3, 71, 21–40. See pp.152–4.

[268]Du Breul hasPtolemaeus, rex Alexandriae.

[269]The canons by which Ptolemy calculated the position of the planets. Isidore makes no further reference to them.

[270]For map showing theclimatasee Konrad Miller,Die ältesten Weltkarten(Stuttgart, 1895), vol. iii, p. 127.

[271]This order is repeated in 13, 6.

[272]This passage indicates Isidore’s belief in a flat earth. See pp.51–54.

[273]Isidore does not observe the distinctions he lays down here. He does not seem to have known that Orion and Bootes were constellations.

[274]Du Breul has in addition:latitudo intelligitur per signiferum, longitudo per proprium excursum.

[275]The celestial equator.

[276]Subjects of medical interest are treated also in book xi (parts of the body, monstrous births, etc.), in book xii (healing springs), and in book xxii (diet). There is also a chapter (39) on pestilence inDe Natura Rerum.

[277]Galen was one of these.

[278]Max Neuberger,Geschichte der Medizin(Stuttgart, 1906–1911), vol. i, pp. 310–321.

[279]Ibid., vol. ii, p. 61et seq.

[280]Neuberger,op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 240–278 for an account of medicine in the early middle ages.

[281]This school was really founded in the first century B.C. According to it disease consists in a contraction or relaxation of the pores (strictus statusorlaxus status). Nothing but the supposed general condition of the body was of importance. Neuberger,Geschichte der Medizin, vol. 1, pp. 303–309.

[282]A school that appeared in the third century B.C., and corresponded in medicine to the skeptical movement in philosophy. Alla priorireasoning was rejected.Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 276–284.

[283]The classical school of medicine founded by Hippocrates. Isidore fails to mention the Pneumatici and the Eclectici (ibid., vol. 1, pp. 327–336), other prominent schools of medicine.

[284]The derivation which Isidore had in mind was probably ζῆν (to live).

[285]The sentence is a confused one. Isidore probably had in mind the derivation ofcholerafrom χολή and ῥέω.

[286]Arteriae.Compare “Sanguis per venas in omne corpus diffunditur et spiritus per arterias.” Cicero,N. D., 2, 55, 138.

[287]Referring to the idea that the elements could pass into one another. Seep. 60.

[288]Du Breul hasinsania daemonum.

[289]A kind of leprosy.

[290]De initio medicinae.

[291]TheDe Legibusconstitutes Isidore’s formal account of law. In bk. ii a chapter is devoted to the subject of law as a sub-division of rhetoric; it consists of definitions of general terms. In bk. ix there are chapters on citizens, and on degrees of kinship, which have a legal bearing.Cf.also bk. xviii, 15.

[292]Considering the intellectual stagnation of the time, it seems quite possible that the Justinian code was unheard of wherever it was not actually the law of the land. Vinogradoff gives the conclusion of modern scholarship as to this when he says (Roman Law in Medieval Europe, London, 1909, p. 8): “TheCorpus Jurisof Justinian, which contains the main body of law for later ages, including our own, was accepted and even known only in the East and in those parts of Italy which had been reconquered by Justinian’s generals. The rest of the western provinces still clung to the tradition of the preceding period, culminating in the official code of Theodosius II (A.D. 437).” Compare also Conrat,Die Epitome Exactis Regibus, Introd., pp. 248–257; Flach,Droit Romain au Moyen Age(Paris, 1890), especially pp. 52–57. Conrat, in hisGeschichte der Quellen und Literatur des Römischen Rechts in Früheren Mittelalter, pp. 150–153, maintains, first, that there is no trace of evidence elsewhere in Isidore’s works, of a knowledge of the existence of the Justinian code; and, second, that the internal evidence in theDe Legibuspoints to the use of other sources. See also Ureña,Historia Crítica de la Literatura Jurídica Española(Madrid, 1897), vol 1, p. 294.

[293]TheDe Legibusshould not be regarded as a text-book for a law school, but for the subject of law as forming a minor part of the preparation of a priest. See Introd.,p. 87, and Flach,op. cit., the fourth section of which (pp. 104–128) deals with the teaching of law from the sixth to the eleventh century.

[294]For an account of separate MSS. of Isidore’sDe Legibus(often containing also legal matter from bks. ii, ix and xviii), see Joseph Tardif,Un Abrégé Juridique des Etymologies d’Isidore de SevilleinMélanges Julien Havet(Paris, 1895).

[295]Communis omnium possessio.

[296]Holding the consulate for part of the year only.

[297]Readinglegisforeius. See 2, 10.

[298]See Muirhead,The Law of Rome, p. 249.

[299]In his “On Times,” Isidore is apparently condensing what he has written elsewhere. The first part of it, which gives an account of the divisions of time—the moment, hour, day, week, month, year, and so forth—is drawn fromDe Natura Rerum, which in turn was based on Suetonius, Solinus, Hyginus, of the heathen writers, and Ambrosius, Clement, and Augustine, of the Christian. (Seep. 46.) In the second part, which consists of a brief chronology, Isidore condensed hisChronicon, which was drawn from Eusebius as translated and modified by Jerome, and supplemented by the later work of Prosper, Victor Tunnensis, and Joannis Biclarensis. The sources of theChroniconhave been thoroughly discussed by H. Hertzberg,Ueber die Chronicon des Isidors von SevillainForschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte(Göttingen, 1875), vol. xv.

[300]At the same time chronology was incidentally made to show in a statistical way what a great priority Hebrew civilization had over its pagan rivals.Cf.pp.79,80.

[301]In some respects Isidore’s chronology is peculiar, and differs from any known chronology of world-history of the time. For example, where Hieronymus gives the time from the flood to Abraham as 1072 years, Isidore gives it as 942 years; and where Africanus put the birth of Christ in the year 5500 of the world, Isidore put it in 5197. See Hertzberg, p. 376. Again, only the full years are noticed, the fractions of the older chronologies being either counted as integers or ignored, though this is not done according to any system. For table showing irregularities here, seeibid., p. 325, notes 3 and 4.

[302]E.g.De Civitate Dei, xxii, 30.

[303]5, 38, 5.

[304]Hora(hour) andora(coast or border) are confused.

[305]A communionis temperamento.

[306]So in the case of summer, autumn, and winter.

[307]The reference in “complex history” (complicem historiam) is to the parallel sets of chronological tables of the histories of different peoples given by Eusebius.

[308]Sufficient of Isidore’s chronology is translated to give an idea of its method and of the events mentioned in it. His dates for the six ages of the world are as follows:First age0–2242.Second age2242–3184.Third age3184–4125.Fourth age4125–4610.Fifth age4610–5155.Sixth age5155–?The world according to Isidore’s chronology was in its 5825th year. Although Isidore professes to start the sixth age with the birth of Christ, he really starts it with the beginning of the reign of Augustus. SeeChronicon; Migne,P. L., vol. 83, col. 1038.

[308]Sufficient of Isidore’s chronology is translated to give an idea of its method and of the events mentioned in it. His dates for the six ages of the world are as follows:

The world according to Isidore’s chronology was in its 5825th year. Although Isidore professes to start the sixth age with the birth of Christ, he really starts it with the beginning of the reign of Augustus. SeeChronicon; Migne,P. L., vol. 83, col. 1038.

[309]These three books are not grouped by Isidore under one name. There apparently was no name in existence by which to designate them, astheologiawas not applied, commonly at least, to Christian doctrine before Abelard’s time.

[310]The sources of bks. vi-viii differ from those of the remaining books of theEtymologiesin being almost exclusively Christian. Isidore himself, in his non-secular writings, covers more fully the subjects which he here treats in a summary fashion. Compare bk. vi, chaps. 1 and 2, withProemia in Libros Veteris ac Novi Testamenti; bk. vii, chaps. 6 and 7, withExpositiones Mysticorum SacramentorumandDe Ortu et Obitu Patrum; bk. viii, chaps. 1–5, withSententiarum Libri Tres; bk. vi, chap. 19, and bk. vii, chaps. 12, 13, withDe Ecclesiasticis Officiis.

[311]See pp.43,86.

[312]Of the alphabet.

[313]This passage is preceded by a table indicating the date of Easter for 95 years (627–721). It is clear that although Isidore was not acquainted with the plan of Dionysius Exiguus to institute the Christian era, he was acquainted with the essentials of his Easter table. Dionysius had given the dates for Easter in five 19-year cycles, dating from 525; in Isidore this is continued for the years 627 to 721. Isidore’s table consists merely of parallel columns of the days of the month and corresponding days of the moon on which Easter fell. Each date is marked C or E, abbreviations forcommunis annusandembolismuswhich describe respectively the year of twelve and that of thirteen lunar months in use in the Hebrew chronology. A further abbreviation, B, stands opposite each fourth year, to mark the leap-years. The years are not numbered according to any era, and the assignment of dates, 627–721, is inferred from the dates given for Easter. See Ideler,Chronologie, vol. ii, p. 290 (Berlin, 1826). Isidore does not make it plain that he understood the mathematics of the computation of Easter. It is of interest that in 643 the fourth synod of Toledo passed an enactment to secure a common observance of Easter throughout the Spanish churches, no doubt according to this Easter-table. See Gams,Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien(Regensburg, 1874), vol. ii, part 2, p. 94.

[314]It is worth noticing that in bks. vii and viii Isidore gives a list of the whole hierarchy of supernatural and human existences beginning with God and ending with the devil. An inspection of the order of subjects will suggest to the reader that he was arranging them in order of merit. If this supposition is correct, the table of contents of these two books is a very significant one, as throwing light upon Isidore’s scale of values for the divine, the human and the demonic.

Back to Index Next