The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville

Description

This work is the first 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 hundreds 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.

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 (Houghton Mifflin,1987), and among his books are Word-Hoard (Yale University Press, 1977), Allegories of History, Allegories of Love (Archon, 1978), Studies in Troilus (Colleagues, 1993), and A Commentary on 'Piers Plowman' (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming). 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 University of California, Irvine. His previous publications include Georg Forster: A Voyage Round the World (ed. with Nicholas Thomas) (University of Hawai'i Press, 2000).

'This extraordinatry mix of encyclopaedia and dictionary must be the most historically important work never to have been translated into English until this fine collaborative work.' Spectator '... with this publication, the whole extraordinary compendium is available to Third Milennium man for the first time ever in equally simple English ... glorious contents.' Sunday Telegraph ' ... an accurate, literal translation, which contributes significantly to the field of Isidorian studies.' BMCR