Isidore, Saint, an eminent Spanish scholar and
bishop, born at Carthagena about 570 A.D., was a brother
of Leander, Archbishop of Seville. He understood
Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and was very influential in
the Spanish Church. About 600 he was appointed
Bishop of Seville. The Council of Toledo, held in 650,
denominated him "the glory of the Catholic Church,
and the most learned man of his age." Among his most
important works are, in Latin, "A Chronicle from the
Origin of the World to 626 A.D.," and "Twenty Books
of Etymologies," which, says Dr. Hoefer,
"
is one of the
most precious monuments for the history of human
knowledge." Died in 636 a.d.
See Saint Ildefonso, "De Viris illustrious ;" Tritheim, "De
Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis;" Roeslkr,
"
Dissertatio ; Isidori Historia
Gothorum, Vandalorum," etc., 1803.
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Saint Isidore of Seville (Spanish: San Isidro or San Isidoro
de Sevilla, Latin: Isidorus Hispalensis) (c. 560 – 4 April
636) was Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and
is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-
quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien" ("the last
scholar of the ancient world").[2] Indeed, all the later
medieval history-writing of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula,
comprising modern Spain and Portugal) was based on his
histories.
At a time of disintegration of classical culture,[3] and
aristocratic violence and illiteracy, he was involved in the
conversion of the royal Visigothic Arians to Catholicism, both
assisting his brother Leander of Seville, and continuing after
his brother's death. He was influential in the inner circle of
Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played
a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo and Seville. The
Visigothic legislation which resulted from these councils is
regarded by modern historians as exercising an important
influence on the beginnings of representative government...
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