The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville

jun 2006 · Cambridge University Press

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This work is a complete English translation of the Latin Etymologies of Isidore, Bishop of Seville (c.560–636). Isidore compiled the work between c.615 and the early 630s and it takes the form of an encyclopedia, arranged by subject matter. It contains much lore of the late classical world beginning with the Seven Liberal Arts, including Rhetoric, and touches on thousands of topics ranging from the names of God, the terminology of the Law, the technologies of fabrics, ships and agriculture to the names of cities and rivers, the theatrical arts, and cooking utensils. Isidore provides etymologies for most of the terms he explains, finding in the causes of words the underlying key to their meaning. This book offers a highly readable translation of the twenty books of the Etymologies, one of the most widely known texts for a thousand years from Isidore's time.

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Stephen A. Barney is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He edited and annotated Chaucer's Troilus for The Riverside Chaucer (1987) and also as a Norton Critical Edition (2006). He is also the author of The Penn Commentary on 'Piers Plowman', Volume 5 (2006).

W. J. Lewis is a translator and editor. Her previous translations include two works by Galen: Hippocrates on the Nature of Man and On the Elements According to Hippocrates and she co-translated On the Properties of Discourse: A Translation of Tractatus de Proprietatibus Sermonum with Stephen Barney, Calvin Normore and Terence Parsons (1997).

Jennifer Beach is an independent classics scholar and senior documenter for a software engineering company. She worked for several years at the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae and continues to explore the relationship between classics and computer technology.

Oliver Berghof is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at California State University, San Marcos, and Lecturer in Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. His previous publications include Georg Forster: A Voyage Round the World (edited with Nicholas Thomas, 2000).