5 - Isidore of Seville

Summary

“De Magis”, Etymologise, translation Steven A. Barney

Isidore of Seville (b. ca. 560; d. 636 CE) composed, around 630 CE, the most influential encyclopaedic work of the Middle Ages, the Etymologiae or Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX. The Etymologiae consist of 448 chapters in 20 books and represent the first systematic attempt to compile and summarize all aspects of ancient learning considered relevant by a mediaeval Christian author. The structure of the work adopts the ancient curriculum of the seven liberal arts; our passage, entitled “De magis” (“Of the magicians”), is located in Book 8 on “De ecclesia et sectis” (“Of the church and sects”).

Isidore collates a variety of former statements on “magic”. Like Plato (see Chapter 1) and Pliny (Chapter 2), he associates Zoroaster with “magic”; like Augustine (see Chapter 4), he regards demons as being responsible for all kinds of “magic”. His phrase “this foolery of the magic arts held sway over the entire world for many centuries through the instruction of evil angels” (Etymologiae 8.9.3) appears, in fact, like an amalgamation of Pliny's and Augustine's words. He picks up several familiar topics of preceding works on “magic” such as Moses' contest with the Egyptian priests (Exodus 7.9f), or Circe's transformation of Ulysses' companions into pigs (Homer, Odyssey 10.233f). Furthermore, Isidore quotes Virgil on the miraculous powers of “magic” and goes into some detail with “necromancers” – that is, “those by whose incantations the dead, brought back to life, seem to prophesy, and to answer what is asked” (Etymologiae 8.9.11).