|  |
| Toynbee "Isidoro" |
Isidorus Hispalensis, St. Isidore of Seville, a learned
Spaniard, one of the most influential writers of the
early Middle Ages; a father of the Western Church; he
was the son of a wealthy and distinguished native of
Cartagena, where he was born c. 570; his elder brother
Leander was bishop of Seville, in which dignity Isidore
succeeded him in 602; he died at Seville in 636. He
devoted himself to the conversion of the Visigoths from
Arianism, and wrote many works, the most important of
which were the Originum seu etymologiarum libri
XX, a widely used encyclopaedia of the scientific
knowledge of the age, the De ecclesiasticis
officiis, and the Libri sententiarurm.
Brunetto Latini made extensive use of the
Etymnologies in certain portions of his
Trésor. Isidore completed the Mozarabic
missal and breviary which had been begun by his
brother Leander. He followed Boethius in his treatment
of logic, as he himself was followed by Bede. [For his
works, see PL., 82-841.]
D. places Isidore amollg the great doctors of the
Church (Spiriti sapienti),in the heaven of
the Sun, where his spirit, in company with those of
Bede and Richard of St. Victor, is pointed out by
Thomas Aquinas,
[Par. x. 131]
[Sole, Cielo del.]
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee
(1968) by permission of Oxford University Press