Harley MS 6, ff 1r-149r

Isidore, Bishop of Seville (599-636), Etymologiae, Books I-XX.

The text is dedicated to Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa (631-651), the editor of the text, and is preceded (ff. 1r-1v) by two letters between Isidore and Braulio (see Patrologiae Cursus Completus... Series latina, ed. by J.-P. Migne, vols 1-161 (Paris 1857-1866), 83, cols. 909A-910A, 914A-C, letters x, xiii).

Contents:

Rubric (f. 1r) 'Incipit epistula Braulionis augustani episcopi / ad ysidorum spalensem episcopum iuniorem', incipit: 'Domino meo et vere domino christique / electo isidoro episcoporum summo: / braulio servus inuttlis sanctorum / dei. O pie domine et virorum prestantissi/me', explicit: 'et remittanta [sic] / facinora. Item manu sua ... frater'; preface (treated here as a letter from Isidore to Braulio), rubric 'Item ad eundem', incipit: 'Domino meo … En tibi sicut pollicitus sum', explicit 'conscrip/tum stilo maiorum';

Index of books, rubric (f. 2r) 'Incipiunt libri ysi/dori spalensis episcopi ad braulionem au/gustanum episcopum scripti. Incipiunt capitula / primi libri', incipit: 'De disciplina / et arte', explicit: 'De hystoria / Expliciunt capitula'; rubric 'Incipit liber primus de disciplina et arte', incipit: 'Disciplina a discendo nomen ac/cepit', explicit: 'ut vis morbi / ignis ardore siccetur. / Explicit'.

The work is divided into 20 books, relating to: - Book I (ff. 2r-13v), grammar; - Book II (ff. 13v-22r), rhetoric and logic; - Book III (ff. 22r- 29v), mathematics: arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy (i.e. the arts of the Quadrivium); - Book IV (ff. 29v-32v), medicine; - Book V (ff. 32v-39v), laws and division of time (calendars); - Book VI (ff. 39v-47r), biblical Scripture, canon law, and liturgical calendar; - Book VII (ff. 47r-56r), names of the celestial hierarchy, holy fathers, martyrs, and clergy; - Book VIII (ff. 56r-63v), various religions, including heresies and paganism, philosophy, poetry, and art of divination; - Book XI (ff. 63v-72v), languages, and their names; - Book X (ff. 72v-78v), alphabetical glossary of substantives and adjectives relating to mankind and human qualities; - Book XI (ff. 78v-85r), the human body and medicine; - Book XII (ff. 85r-95r), various animals; - Book XIII (ff. 95r-100v), celestial and terrestrial elements, such as air, water, sea, and rivers; - Book XIV (ff. 101r-108v), geographical aspects of the earth; - Book XV (ff. 108v-115r), aspects of human settlements such as cities, villages, fields and their boundaries, and travels; - Book XVI (ff. 115v-124r), stone, ivory, marble, metals, and weights and measures; - Book XVII (ff. 124r-132r), agriculture and its products; - Book XVIII (ff. 132r-137v), war, weapons and trophies, and games; - Book XIX (ff. 137v-145r), ships, metal smithing, building construction, clothing, vesture, and ornaments; - Book XX (ff. 145r-149r), furniture, implements for drinking and eating, vehicles, country life and gardening, and saddlery. Each book, with the only exception of Book X (f. 72v), is preceded by a table of contents.

A few marginal notes added by later readers (in particular a group of notabilia to Book I on ff. 9r-12v, supplied by a 15th-century hand in ink, and marginal notes, passim, in dry point by the same hand of the texts on ff. 196v, 197v);

Chapter numbers in black ink added in the margins by a later annotator.

Other copies of the text in Additional MS 15603, Additional MS 21998, Additional MS 22797, and Additional MS 22798, Arundel MS 129, Burney MS 326 and 328, Harley MS 2660, Harley MS 2686, Harley MS 3025 (only Books VI-IX), Harley MS 3035, Harley MS 3099, and Harley MS 3941, Egerton MS 2835, Royal MS 6. C. i (11th century) and Royal MS 12 F. iv, ff. 21-197v (late 12th century); excerpts from Book I in Harley MS 2713 (ff. 1-34), from Book IV in Royal MS 12 E. xx (ff. 151v-154), and from Book V in Additional MS 8167 (ff. 3r-30v).

First edition printed by Günther Zainer in Augsburg on 19 Nov. 1472: see Fredrick R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries: A Third Census of Fifteenth-Century Books Recorded in North American Collections (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1964), I181, ISTC ii00181000 (British Library copies are IB.5438, IB.5441, IB.5441a, G.7633, Hirsch.I.255, Hirsch.I.256). For modern editions see PL, lxxxii (1850), 73-728, based on the edition by Arévalo, vols. 3-4 (1798-1801); Lindsay (1911); individual editions of single books by M. Fontaine and others, Auteurs latins du Moyen Âge, Les Belles Lettres (Paris, 1981-), for which see 'Compte rendu du Colloque Isidorien tenu à l'Institut d'Études latines de l'Université de Paris le 23 Juin 1970', Revue d'histoire des textes, 2 (1972), 282-88; Isidoro de Sevilla, Etimologias, ed. Jose Oroz Reta and Manuel A. Marcos Casquero (Madrid, 1982-1983), with Spanish translation. For an English translation of Books IV and XI see W. D. Sharpe, Isidore of Seville: The Medical Writings. An English translation with an introduction and commentary, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s., 54, part 2 (Philadelphia, 1964). For the incipits of Books IV, XVI 25-27, XX 3, and other excerpts see Beccaria 1956, pp. 149 (26.8), 172 (35.34), 258 (78.22), 322 (106.9), 420, and L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, The Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, 29 (London, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968), 0857F, 1059K, 1079F, 1375H.

Decoration:

Initials (1-4 line) alternately green or red with penwork decoration of contrasting red or blue, with ascenders and descenders often extending well into the margin or the space between columns. Paragraph marks on f. 7r alternately green or red. Headings in red ink. Sentence initials (ff. 5v-11r, 13v-30v, 72r-149r) touched in red. Running titles (added in 14th century?) in metal point giving the book number on rectos. Other running titles added later (16th century) in black ink, possibly by the same hand of the title on f. 1* v.