Isidore of Seville

Letters are signs of things, symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a voice they speak to us the words of the absent...

St. Isidore of Seville (or Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – April 4, 636), Archbishop of Seville, was the author of the encyclopaedic [Etymologiae] (or Origines), a work prized during the Middle Ages as a compendium of all human knowledge. He is now accepted by many as the patron saint of computing and the Internet.

Quotes

Without music there can be no perfect knowledge, for there is nothing without it. For even the universe itself is said to have been put together with a certain harmony of sounds, and the very heavens revolve under the guidance of harmony.

Etymologiae

Encyclopedic article on Etymologiae on Wikipedia

Original Latin text edited by w:Wallace Lindsay (W. M. Lindsay) published in w:Oxford Classical Texts from Wikisource (Lindsay 1911). English translation translated by w:Ernest Brehaut from w:Project Gutenberg) (Brehaut 1912).

• Litterae autem sunt indices rerum, signa verborum, quibus tanta vis est, ut nobis dicta absentium sine voce loquantur. [Verba enim per oculos non per aures introducunt.]
  • Letters are signs of things, symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a voice they speak to us the words of the absent; for they introduce words by the eye, not by the ear.
  • Bk. 1, ch. 3. (Latin, Brehaut 1912 p.96)

• Itaque sine Musica nulla disciplina potest esse perfecta, nihil enim sine illa. Nam et ipse mundus quadam harmonia sonorum fertur esse conpositus, et coelum ipsud sub harmoniae modulatione revolvi.
  • And without music there can be no perfect knowledge, for there is nothing without it. For even the universe itself is said to have been put together with a certain harmony of sounds, and the very heavens revolve under the guidance of harmony.
  • Bk. 3, ch. 17. (Latin, Brehaut 1912 p.137)

• QVID SIT IVS GENTIVM. [1] Ius gentium est sedium occupatio, aedificatio, munitio, bella, captivitates, servitutes, postliminia, foedera pacis, indutiae, legatorum non violandorum religio, conubia inter alienigenas prohibita. Et inde ius gentium, quia eo iure omnes fere gentes utuntur.
  • Bk. 5, ch. 6. (Latin)

• Homo dictus, quia ex humo est factus, sicut [et] in Genesi dicitur (2,7): 'Et creavit Deus hominem de humo terrae.'
  • Homo is so named because he is made of humus (earth), as it is told in Genesis: “Et creavit Deus hominem de humo terrae.”
  • Bk. 11, ch. 1, (Latin, Brehaut 1912 p.215)
  • On w:creation of life from clay (creation of life from earth).

• Siquidem et per naturam pleraque mutationem recipiunt, et corrupta in diversas species transformantur; sicut de vitulorum carnibus putridis apes, sicut de equis scarabei, de mulis locustae, de cancris scorpiones.
  • Many creatures go through a natural change and by decay pass into different forms, as bees [are formed] by the decaying flesh of calves, as beetles from horses, locusts from mules, scorpions from crabs.
  • Bk. 11, ch. 4, (Latin, Brehaut 1912 p.221)

Regula Monachorum

• [The abbot] will exhibit himself as one to be imitated in all examples of works; nor shall anyone be allowed to command anything that he has not done himself.
  • Regula Monachorum, 2,2.

• Through idleness, lusts and harmful thoughts grow, but through the exercise of labor, vices are likewise diminished.
  • Regula Monachorum, 5,1.

• If [the monks] wish to devote themselves to reading so that they do not work, they are contumacious to reading itself, because they do not do what they read there.
  • Regula Monachorum, 5,4.

• Monks who are working should meditate or sing so that they may be consoled in their labor by the delight of the words and songs of God. For if secular workers do not cease to sing lewd songs among their labors, and thus entangle their mouths in songs and fables, so that they do not withdraw their hands from work, how much more should the servants of Christ, who must work with their hands in such a way that they always have the praise of God in their mouths, and serve with their tongues in psalms and hymns!
  • Regula Monachorum, 5,5.

• A detected vice is quickly cured, but the hidden vice, the more it is concealed, the more deeply it creeps, for truly he who neglects to make it known does not wish to be cured at all.
  • Regula Monachorum, 13,5.

• Offenses are either grave or light. A person guilty of a lighter offense is one who has chosen to be idle; who has come late to duty, to a meeting, or to the table; who has laughed in the choir or engaged in idle tales... who has used a book carelessly... Therefore, these and similar offenses must be corrected with a three-day excommunication.
  • Regula Monachorum, 17,1.

• For brothers who pass from this life, before they are buried, a sacrifice should be offered to the Lord for the remission of their sins.
  • Regula Monachorum, 24,1.

Quotes about Isidore

Opera omnia, 1797

• Theological necessity was among the main reasons which led St. Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, to incorporate this theory [of the later development of insects out of carrion, following the initial creation], supported by St. Basil and St. Augustine, into his great encyclopedic work [Etymologiae] which gave materials for thought on God and Nature to so many generations. He familiarized the theological world still further with the doctrine of secondary creation, giving such examples of it as that "bees are generated from decomposed veal, beetles from horseflesh, grasshoppers from mules, scorpions from crabs," and, in order to give still stronger force to the idea of such transformations, he dwells on the biblical account of Nebuchadnezzar, which appears to have taken strong hold upon medieval thought in science, and he declares that other human beings had been changed into animals, especially into swine, wolves, and owls.
  • Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896) Vol.1 p. 55.

External links

• Latin works at Wikisource