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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Isidore (d. 636) was the younger brother of St. Leander of Seville, who saw to his early education, of St. Fulgentius of Écija (Roman-period Astigi), and of St. Florentina.  It was also Leander who ordained Isidore priest.  A respected theologian, Isidore succeeded Leander as metropolitan of Seville in 600 or 601.  Keen on improving the educational level of the religious in his charge, he had episcopal schools opened in several dioceses (Seville, Zaragoza, Toledo, perhaps others) and wrote prolifically on many subjects.  Isidore's _Etymologiae_ or Origines_ was the leading Latin-language encyclopedia of the early and central Middle Ages.

In 1063 Isidore's relics were brought from Seville to León, where they were placed in the church of San Juan Bautista.  Isidore was canonized in 1598.  In 1722 he was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.  In 1997 pope St. John Paul II declared him patron saint of the Internet.


Some period-pertinent images of St. Isidore of Seville:

a) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Florentina, to whom the work is dedicated) in an eighth- or ninth-century copy, originally from Corbie, of his _De fide catholica contra Judaeos_  (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 13396, fol. 1v):
http://tinyurl.com/ykgrqkp

b) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Braulio, to whom the work is dedicated) in a later tenth-century copy of his _Etymologiae_ (Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 167, fol. 1r):
http://tinyurl.com/ywn78d
http://tinyurl.com/yhed2q2

c) as depicted (at far left) in a later tenth-century copy of the _Chronicon Albeldense_ (completed, 976; San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, cod. Escorialensis d I 2, fol.  ):
http://index-f.com/gomeres/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/isidoro1p.jpg

d) as depicted in an early twelfth-century copy of his _Synonyma de lamentatione animae peccatricis_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 2819, fol. 1r):
http://tinyurl.com/zr57w5v

e) as depicted (dividing his _Etymologiae_ into forty-four books) in the late twelfth-century Navarre Picture Bible from Pamplona (Amiens, Bibliothèques d'Amiens Métropole, ms. 108, fol. 246v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht3/IRHT_060544-p.jpg

f) as depicted in the late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library, Univ. Lib. MS 24, fol. 81r):
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/comment/81risidf.hti

g) as depicted in an early sixteenth-century book of hours (ca. 1510; Use of Rome; Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2104, fol. 169r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_051215-p.jpg 

Best,
John Dillon
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