Etymologiae

…have been derived from the Etymologies of Isidore of Sevilla and from other Christian writers. In the 9th century the situation changed abruptly: the Andalusians, who traveled east in order to comply with the injunction to conduct a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetimes, took advantage of…

His Etymologies, an encyclopaedia of human and divine subjects, was one of the chief landmarks in glossography (the compilation of glossaries) and was for many centuries one of the most important reference books.

…Origins [or Etymologies]”), commonly called Etymologiae, giving pride of place to the liberal arts and medicine, the Bible and the church coming later but still preceding such subjects as agriculture and warfare, shipping and furniture. The earliest recorded Arabic encyclopaedia, compiled by the 9th-century Arab philologist and historian Ibn Qutaybah,…

His Etymologiae therefore paid much attention to practical matters and even included an etymological dictionary. This was in line with the thought of St. Jerome—on whose encyclopaedic Chronicon and De viris illustribus St. Isidore had drawn—who, in common with the early Christian Fathers, was eager to…

Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies, which contains classic definitions of royal power: rex a rectum agere (“[the word] king derives from acting righteously”) and non regit qui non corrigit (“he does not rule who does not correct”). Those definitions formed the basis for most medieval thinking about kingship. A…

…civilization was the Etymologiae (Etymologies), an encyclopaedic work that attempted to summarize the wisdom of the ancient world.

…divisio rhythmica in the 7th-century Etymologiae of Isidore, archbishop of Sevilla (Seville).