J. Henderson, The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville. Truth from Words

John Henderson, The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville. Truth from Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, xi-232p.

• ISBN 978-0-521-86740-5 
• $99.00.

Compte rendu dans Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2009.01.45) par Marco Formisano (Humboldt University and Columbia University)
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Présentation de l'éditeur:
In his Etymologiae, St Isidore of Seville put together a systematic survey of the world in the form of a vast thesaurus of Latin vocabulary, which supplies a more or less accepted or fanciful etymology for each term. It became one of the most influential books of European culture through the whole medieval period. This Latin 'Roget' is traditionally used as a reference work, accessed through an elaborate index system. In this book Professor Henderson, the most challenging critic writing on Latin literature and Roman culture today, presents the first full reading of all twenty books of the Etymologiae, showing how the material is sequenced so that its reader is treated to a thorough-going education in the world as it was apprehended in Jewish, Graeco-Roman and Christian culture. All Latin, including etymologies, is translated.

• The first book to offer a reading of the whole of the Etymologiae, the Latin power book that delivered the classical-Christian world to the Middle Ages • Translates all Latin, including the etymologies, for which a full index is provided • Written by one of the leading critics of Latin literature and Roman culture

table: Preface: when it's ajar; Part I. Preliminaries: 1.1. Prefatory correspondence and dedication; 1.2. Index and referencing system; 1.3. Conclusion; Part II. Reading the Etymologiae: 2. Primary education; 2.1. Proem: seven at one blow; 2.1.1. Grammar: the alphabet; 2.1.2. Grammar proper; 2.2. Rhetoric; 2.3. Dialectic or rationalist philosophy; 3. Secondary education; 3.1.Poly-mathematics: quadrophenia; 3.2. Arithmetic; 3.3. Geometry; 3.4. Music; 3.5. Astronomy domine; 3.6~4. Medicine; 5. Law and history; 6. Scripture and Christian duties; 7. God, the angels, the saints; 8. Church, schism, paganism; 9. Languages, populations, societies; 10. Epithets: a thesaurus; 11. Mankind and monsters; 12. Living creatures; 13. World survey (water); 14. Earth survey (land); 15. Building, town and country; 16. Rocks and metals; 17. Agriculture and botany; 18. War and recreation; 19. Ships, construction and decoration, clothing; 20. Food and drink, packaging and transport, tools and harness; Conclusion: after words; Appendix 1. W. M. Lindsay and the scholarship on Isidore; Appendix 2. Isidore's chronographic table (Etymologiae 5.39).