Harley MS 3099, ff 1v-153r

Isidore, Bishop of Seville, Etymologiae, Books I-XX. Index (f. 1v) of books, incipit: 'Tu valeas que requiris cito in hoc / corpore invenire hec tibi lector / pagina monstrat de quibus rebus / in libris singulis conditor huius co/dicis disputavit. In primo li/bro de gramatica et partibus eius', explicit: 'In vigesimo libro de mensis … sive de in/strumentis equorum'; five letters of correspondence between St. Isidore and Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa (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); rubric: 'Incipit Ysidorus / etthymologyarum [sic] .i. / origo vocabulorum / In nomine / dei summi', incipit: 'Domino meo. et / dei servo. / Braulio/ni / episcopo. / Hysidorus. / Omni deside/rio desidera/vi nunc vide/re faciem tuam!', explicit (f. 3v): 'et remittantur facinora. Item / manu sua … frater', followed by preface without break, incipit: 'En tibi sicut pollicitus sum', explicit: 'notatum si/cuti extat conscriptum stilo maiorum'; table of content, rubric 'Incipiunt capitula' and added later 'liber .i.', incipit 'De disciplina et arte .i.', explicit: 'xxvii De generibus histori/e'; rubric (f. 3v): 'Incipiunt libri ethimologiarum / Ysidori iunioris spalensis episcopi ad brau/lionem augustanum episcopum et ad sisi/butum regem. Incipit liber primus / de gramatica et partibus eius.', inipit:. 'Disciplina a discendo nomen accepit! unde / et scientia dici potest', explicit (f. 153): 'ut vis morbi ignis ardore sicce/tur; Amen; + N per te / Christe ceptus. Liber expli/cit iste'.

The twenty books relate to: Book I (ff. 3v-14v), grammar; Book II (ff. 14v-23r), rhetoric and logic; Book III (ff. 23r-31r), mathematics, arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy (i.e. the arts of the Quadrivium); Book IV (ff. 31r-33v), medicine; Book V (ff. 33v-42v), laws and division of time (calendars), including (ff. 39r-42r) decorated biblical and historical genealogy; Book VI (ff. 42v-50v), biblical Scripture, canon law, and the liturgical calendar, including (ff. 46r-47r) space left blank for tables of Easter cycles; Book VII (ff. 51r-59r), names of the celestial hierarchy, holy fathers, martyrs, and clergy; Book VIII (ff. 59r-67r), various religions, heresies and paganism, philosophy, poetry, and art of divination; Book IX (ff. 67r-78r), languages, and their names, including (f. 77r) diagram of the table of consanguinity; Book X (ff. 78r-85r), alphabetical glossary of substantives and adjectives relating to mankind and human qualities; Book XI (ff. 85r-92r), the human body and medicine; Book XII (ff. 92r-101v), various animals; Book XIII (ff. 101v-106r), celestial and terrestrial elements, such as air, water, sea, and rivers; Book XIV (ff. 106r-112v), geographical aspects of the earth; Book XV (ff. 112v-119r), aspects of human settlements such as cities, villages, fields and their boundaries, and travels; Book XVI (ff. 119r-127r), stone, ivory, marble, metals, and weights and measures; Book XVII (ff. 127r-135v), agriculture and its products; Book XVIII (ff. 135v-140v), war, weapons and trophies, and games; Book XIX (ff. 141r-149r), ships, metal smithing, building construction, clothing, vesture, and ornaments; Book XX (ff. 149r-153r), furniture, implements for drinking and eating, vehicles, country life and gardening, and saddlery. Each book is preceded by a table of contents, but for Book X.

Marginal and interlinear corrections and additions by a later hand, passim.

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

First edition printed by Günther Zainer in Augsburg on 19 November 1472 (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:

Genealogical tree with busts 'Ab origine mundi' starting with Adam in brown ink, with some red, blue, and yellow (ff. 39r-42r). Full page tree of consanguinity with busts, in brown and red ink (f. 77r). Large initial in red and brown with clasps and foliate decoration on yellow grounds (f. 1v). Large initial in brown ink with foliage and clasps, with colour washes (ff. 51, 119). Large initials in brown ink with claps and foliate decoration, some with dragons, or a monkey, one with a blue wash (ff. 34r, 42v, 59r, 78r, 92r, 112v). Large initials in red, some with penwork decoration. Unfinished initials with brown foliage (f. 31r), or filled in later (f. 101v), or as a pencil sketch only (ff. 106r, 136r). Diagrams in red and yellow (f. 25r-25v).

Added drawing in pencil of the Crucifixion (f. 119v).