ABSTRACT
Asanencyclopediaofclassicalandmedievallearning,Isidore'sEtymologiae wasoneofthecentralandmostindispensableworksinamedievallibrary.1 ShortlyafterIsidore'sdeathin636A.D.,Braulio,BishopofSaragosa,editedanddividedthetextinto20bookscontainingsectionsonsubjects suchasthesevenliberalarts,medicine,law,computus,theBibleandthe church,language,mankindandanimals,theearthandtheheavens,rocks andminerals,plantsandagriculture,warfare,ships,clothing,andfood. TheworkquicklyspreadoutsideofSpain,anditbecamethestandard referenceworkforvocabularyonanyofthesubjectslistedabove.Bythe middleofthecenturyitwasalreadyknowninIreland,andbytheend itwasknowninEngland,whereitwasusedbybothAldhelmandBede, amongothers.2Nodoubtoneoftheprimaryattractionsthistexthadfor theIrishandAnglo-Saxonsasnon-Romancespeakerswasthatitpresented itsinformationprimarilyinlinguisticformbydiscussingthemeaningsof Latinwordsandtheircomponentparts.ItsconcentrationonthedefinitionsofLatinwordsmadeitanimportantsourceofinformationonLatin lexicography,anditwasthususedfrequentlybycreatorsofglossaries, especiallythoselaidoutbysubjectmatter,suchastheSecondCleopatra Glossary,theBrusselsGlossary,andtheAntwerp-LondonGlossary.The Etymologiaewasalsooneofthemajorsourcesforthescholarsandteacherswhoaddedglossesandscholiainthemarginsofliterarytexts-not onlythosebyauthorssuchasAldhelm,whousedtheEtymologiaehimself asasourceforlexicalvariationcharacteristicofhisliterarystyle,butalso textsliketheBibleorbyClassicalauthorswhooftenwroteofmaterial
1.IsidoriHispalensisEpiscopiEtymologiarumsiveOriginumlibriXX,ed.W.M.Lindsay,2 vols.(Oxford:OxfordUniv.Press,1911).Theworkislistedinnumerousmedievallibrary catalogues;seeGustavBecker,Catalogibibliothecarumantiqui(Bonn:M.Cohen,1885).See alsoBernhardBischoff,"DieeuropaischeVerbreitungderWerkeIsidorsvonSevilla,"inhis MittelalterlicheStudien,3vols.(Stuttgart:Hiersemann,1966-81),I,171-94.
