Reviews
'We can no longer use the definitive Jacques Fontaine edition of 'On the Nature of Things'without taking into account the additions and corrections of Calvin B. Kendall and Faith Wallis, sufficing to show the importance of the book.'<br />Bryn Mawr <i>Classical Review</i>, 2017
'Kendall and Wallis engage in a lively fashion with Fontaine and present new theories and developments in an equally thorough and lucid way. As such this volume is now, and rightly destined to be the first port of call for any Anglophone, and perhaps many non-Anglophone scholars in work on Isidore's fascinating text. <br />
Andrew Fear, <i>Exemplaria Classica</i>
On the Nature of Things provides a new window into vital intellectual currents, as yet largely unexplored, flowing from Visigothic Spain into Celtic Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, and Merovingian France. This is the first translation of this work into English. The introduction places the work in the context of Isidore's milieu and concerns, and traces the remarkable diffusion of his book. A chapter-by-chapter commentary explains how Isidore selected and transformed his source material, and added his own distinctive features, notably the diagrams that gave this work its medieval name The Book of Wheels (Liber rotarum).
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Isidore’s Life, Times, and Writings
Education
Grammar as a principle of knowledge
Church discipline and biblical exegesis
Isidore’s On the Nature of Things in Context
Structure
Occasion
Purposes and preoccupations
Appeal to reason
Wider ends: a Christianized erudition?
Composite Construction
Text and image
Fontaine’s theory of three Recensions
Single or multiple authorship?
The short recension: two types
The medium recension
Three Spanish interpolations?
The long recension
The mystical addition
Out of Spain and Into the Future
Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England
Traffic between Spain and Italy
Gaul
Germany and Switzerland: the Zofingenmeta morphosis
On the Nature of Things in manuscript and print
Inventory of Manuscripts and Editions
Principles Governing this Translation
Isidore of Seville: On the Nature of Things
Preface: Isidore, to his Lord and Son, Sisebut
List of Chapters
1. Days
2. Night
3. The Week
4. The Months
Diagram 1: the months
5. The Concordance of the Months
6. The Years
7. The Seasons
Diagram 2: the seasons
8. The Solstice and the Equinox
9. The World
10. The Five Circles of the World
Diagram 3: the circles of the world
11. The Parts of the World
Diagram 4: the elements
Diagram 5: the macrocosm and microcosm
12. Heaven and Its Name
13. The Planets of Heaven
14. The Heavenly Waters
15. The Nature of the Sun
16. The Size of the Sun and the Moon
17. The Course of the Sun
18. The Light of the Moon
Diagram 5A: the phases of the moon
19. The Course of the Moon
20. The Eclipse of the Sun
21. The Eclipse of the Moon
22. The Course of the Stars
23. The Position of the Seven Wandering Stars
Diagram 6: the planets
24. The Light of the Stars
25. The Fall of the Stars
26. The Names of the Stars
27. Whether the Stars have a Soul
28. Night
29. Thunder
30. Lightning
31. The Rainbow
32. Clouds
33. Rains
34. Snow
35. Hail
36. The Nature of the Winds
37. The Names of the Winds
Diagram 7: the winds
38. Signs of Storms or Fair Weather
39. Pestilence
40. The Ocean’s Tide
41. Why the Sea does Not Grow in Size
42. Why the Sea has Bitter Waters
43. The River Nile
44. The Names of the Sea and the Rivers
45. The Position of the Earth
46. Earthquake
47. Mount Etna
48. The Parts of the Earth
Diagram of the world: T-O map
Commentary
Appendices
1. The Verse Epistle of King Sisebut
2. Introductory Formulas for the Diagram of the Winds (Diagram 7) in Chapter 37
3. Extracts from Chapter 37 Arranged within the Diagram of the Winds
4. The Poem of the Winds
5. Textual Insertions in Chapter 48 and T-O Map
6. The Zofingen and English Types of the Long Recension
Bibliography
Index of Sources
General Index