The Library

Selected Chapters on History, Cosmology, and Mythology

Isidore of Seville
c. 630 CE

trans. Ernest Brehaut
1912

NOTE

Saint ISIDORE OF SEVILLE (560-636 CE) was an archbishop in the early Middle Ages, remembered best today for his 20-volume masterwork, the Origines (Etymologies), an encyclopedia summarizing the rhetorical, mathematical, and scientific knowledge of the Greeks and Romans. So successful was this work that medieval people felt safe disposing of the sources Isidore drew upon, content that they would miss nothing in so doing for possessing Isidore's summary. For his work, he has been remembered as "the last scholar of the ancient world." A testament to the authority of Isidore is the fact that his incorrect assertions, such as the origin of lightning in the collision of clouds or the belief that marine fossils found atop mountains proved Noah's Flood, continue to be widely believed today.

Although Isidore's work was recently translated into English, there is no complete English edition of his work available online for free. The closest we have is the partial translation made by Ernest Brehaut in 1912 as part of his lengthy study of Isidore's encyclopedia for Columbia University. From his lengthy extracts, I have selected those sections which contain material most directly relevant to the study of alternative history, alternative archaeology, and ancient astronauts. Brehaut's complete translations, with scholarly apparatus and analysis, can be read in its entirety here. Note: I have amended the text of 14.6.8 to provide a complete translation of the material on the Fortunate Isles.

BOOK III
On Astronomy

Chapter 24. On the name of astronomy.
1. Astronomy is the law of the stars, and it traces with inquiring reason the courses of the heavenly bodies, and their figures, and the regular movements of the stars with reference to one another and to the earth.

Chapter 25. On its discoverers.
1. The Egyptians were the first to discover astronomy. And the Chaldeans first taught-astrology and the observance of nativity. Moreover, Josephus asserts that Abraham taught astrology to the Egyptians. The Greeks, however, say that this art was first elaborated by Atlas, and therefore it was said that he held the heavens up.

2. Whoever was the discoverer, it was the movement of the heavens and his rational faculty that stirred him, and in the light of the succession of seasons, the observed and established courses of the stars, and the regularity of the intervals, he considered carefully certain dimensions and numbers, and getting a definite and distinct idea of them he wove them into order and discovered astrology.

Chapter 26. On its teachers.
1. In both Greek and Latin there are volumes written on astronomy by different writers. Of these Ptolemy is considered chief among the Greeks. He also taught rules by which the courses of the stars may be discovered.

Chapter 27. The difference between astronomy and astrology.
1. There is some difference between astronomy and astrology. For astronomy embraces the revolution of the heavens, the rise, setting, and motion of the heavenly bodies, and the origin of their names. Astrology, on the other hand, is in part natural, in part superstitious.

2. It is natural astrology when it describes the courses of the sun and the moon and the stars, and the regular succession of the seasons. Superstitious astrology is that which the mathematici follow, who prophesy by the stars, and who distribute the twelve signs of the heavens among the individual parts of the soul or body, and endeavor to predict the nativities and characters of men from the course of the stars.

Chapter 28. On the subject-matter of astronomy.
1. The subject-matter of astronomy is made up of many kinds. For it defines what the universe is, what the heavens, what the position and movement of the sphere, what the axis of the heavens and the poles, what are the climates of the heavens, what the courses of the sun and moon and stars, and so forth.

Chapter 29. On the universe and its name.
1. Mundus (the universe) is that which is made up of the heavens and earth and the sea and all the heavenly bodies. And it is called mundus for the reason that it is always in motion. For no repose is granted to its elements.

Chapter 30. On the form of the universe.
1. The form of the universe is described as follows: as the universe rises toward the region of the north, so it slopes away toward the south; its head and face, as it were, is the east, and its back part the north.

Chapter 31. On the heavens and their name.
1. The philosophers have asserted that the heavens are round, in rapid motion, and made of fire, and that they are called by this name (coelum) because they have the forms of the stars fixed on them, like a dish with figures in relief (coelatum).

2. For God decked them with bright lights, and filled them with the glowing circles of the sun and moon, and adorned them with the glittering images of flashing stars.

Chapter 32. On the situation of the celestial sphere.
1. The sphere of the heavens is rounded and its center is the earth, equally shut in on every side. This sphere, they say, has neither beginning nor end, for the reason that being rounded like a circle it is not easily perceived where it begins or where it ends.

2. The philosophers have brought in the theory of seven heavens of the universe, that is, globes with planets moving harmoniously, and they assert that by their circles all things are bound together, and they think that these, being connected, and, as it were, fitted to one another, move backward and are borne with definite motions in contrary directions.

Chapter 33. On the motion of the same.
1. The sphere revolves on two axes, of which one is the northern, which never sets, and is called Boreas; the other is the southern, which is never seen, and is called Austronotius.

2. On these two poles the sphere of heaven moves, they say, and with its motion the stars fixed in it pass from the east all the way around to the west, the septentriones near the point of rest describing smaller circles.

Chapter 34. On the course of the same sphere.
1. The sphere of heaven, [moving] from the east towards the west, turns once in a day and night, in the space of twenty four hours, within which the sun completes his swift revolving course over the lands and under the earth.

Chapter 35. On the swiftness of the heavens.
1. With such swiftness is the sphere of heaven said to run, that if the stars did not run against its headlong course in order to delay it, it would destroy the universe.

Chapter 36. On the axis of the heavens.
1. The axis is a straight line north, which passes through the center of the globe of the sphere, and is called axis because the sphere revolves on it like a wheel, or it may be because the Wain is there.

Chapter 37. On the poles of the heavens.
1. The poles are little circles which run on the axis. Of these one is the northern which never sets and is called Boreas; the other is the southern which is never seen, and is called Austronotius.

Chapter 38. On the cardines of the heavens.
1. The cardines of the heavens are the ends of the axis, and are called cardines (hinges) because the heavens turn on them, or because they turn like the heart (cor).

Chapter 40. On the gates of the heavens.
1. There are two gates of the heavens, the east and the west. For by one the sun appears, by the other he retires.

Chapter 42. On the four parts of the heavens.
1. The climata of the heavens, that is, the tracts or parts, are four, of which the first part is the eastern, where some stars rise; the second, the western, where some stars set; the third, the northern, where the sun comes in the longer days; the fourth, the southern, where the sun comes in the time of the longer nights.

4. There are also other climata of the heavens, seven in number, as if seven lines from east to west, under which the manners of men are dissimilar, and animals of different species appear; they are named from certain famous places, of which the first is Meroe; the second, Siene; the third, Catachoras, that is Africa; the fourth, Rhodus; the fifth, Hellespontus; the sixth, Mesopontus; the seventh, Boristhenes.

Chapter 43. On the hemispheres.
1. A hemisphere is half a sphere. The hemisphere above the earth is that part of the heavens the whole of which is seen by us; the hemisphere under the earth is that which cannot be seen as long as it is under the earth.

Chapter 44. On the five circles of the heavens.
1. There are five zones in the heavens, according to the differences of which certain parts of the earth are inhabitable, because of their moderate temperature, and certain parts are uninhabitable because of extremes of heat and cold. And these are called zones or circles for the reason that they exist on the circumference of the sphere.

2. The first of these circles is called the Arctic, because the constellations of the Arcti are visible enclosed within it; the second is called the summer tropic, because in this circle the sun makes summer in northern regions, and does not pass beyond it but immediately returns, and from this it is called tropic.

3. The third circle is called ίσημέρινςο, which is equivalent to equinoctialis in Latin, for the reason that when the sun comes to this circle it makes equal day and night (for ίσημέρινςο means in Latin day equal to the night) and by this circle the sphere is seen to be equally divided. The fourth circle is called Antarctic, for the reason that it is opposite to the circle which we call Arctic.

4. The fifth circle is called the winter tropic, which in the Latin is hiemalis or brumalis, because when the sun comes to this circle it makes winter for those who are in the north and summer for those who dwell in the parts of the south.

Chapter 47. On the size of the sun.
1. The size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and so from the moment when it rises it appears equally to east and west at the same time. And as to its appearing to us about a cubit in width, it is necessary to reflect how far the sun is from the earth, which distance causes it to seem small to us.

Chapter 43. On the size of the moon.
1. The size of the moon also is said to be less than that of the sun. For since the sun is higher than the moon and still appears to us larger than the moon, if it should approach near to us it would be plainly seen to be much larger than the moon. Just as the sun is larger than the earth, so the earth is in some degree larger than the moon.

Chapter 49. On the nature of the sun.
1. The sun, being made of fire, heats to a whiter glow because of the excessive speed of its circular motion. And its fire, philosophers declare, is fed with water, and it receives the virtue of light and heat from an element opposed to it. Whence we see that it is often wet and dewy.

Chapter 50. On the motion of the sun.
1. They say that the sun has a motion of its own and does not turn with the universe... For if it remained fixed in the heavens all days and nights would be equal, but since we see that it will set to-morrow in a different place from where it set yesterday, it is plain that it has a motion of its own and does not move with the universe. For it accomplishes its yearly orbits by varying courses, on account of the changes of the seasons.

2. For going further to the south it makes winter, in order that the land may be enriched by winter rains and frosts. Approaching the north it restores the summer, in order that fruits may mature, and what is green in the damp weather may ripen in the heat.

Chapter 51. What the sun does.
1. The rising sun brings the day, the setting sun the night; for day is the sun above the earth, night is the sun beneath the earth. From the sun come the hours; from the sun, when it rises, the day; from the sun, too, when it sets, the night; from the sun the months and years are numbered; from the sun come the changes of the seasons.

2. When it runs through the south it is nearer the earth; when it passes toward the north it is raised aloft. God has appointed for it different courses, places, and times for this reason, lest if it always remained in the same place all things should be consumed by its daily heat—just as Clement says: “It takes on different motions, by which the temperature of the air is moderated with a view to the seasons, and a regular order is observed in its seasonal changes and permutations. For when it ascends to the higher parts it tempers the spring, and when it comes to the summit of heaven it kindles the summer heats; descending again, it gives autumn its temperature. And when it returns to the lower circle it leaves to us the rigor of winter cold from the icy quarter of the heavens.”

Chapter 52. On the journey of the sun.
1. The eastern sun holds its way through the south, and after it comes to the west and has bathed itself in ocean, it passes by unknown ways beneath the earth, and again returns to the east.

Chapter 53. On the light of the moon.
1. Certain philosophers hold that the moon has a light of its own, that one part of its globe is bright and another dark, and that turning by degrees it assumes different shapes. Others, on the contrary, assert that the moon has no light of its own, but is illumined by the rays of the sun. And therefore it suffers an eclipse if the shadow of the earth is interposed between itself and the sun.

Chapter 56. On the motion of the moon.
1. The moon governs the times by alternately losing and recovering its light. It advances like the sun in an oblique, and not a vertical course, for this reason, that it may not be opposite the center of the earth and often suffer eclipse. For its orbit is near the earth. The waxing moon has its horns looking east; the waning, west; rightly, because it is going to set and lose its light.

Chapter 57. On the nearness of the moon to the earth.
1. The moon is nearer the earth than is the sun. Therefore having a narrow orbit it finishes its course more quickly. For it traverses in thirty days the journey the sun accomplishes in three hundred and sixty-five. Whence the ancients made the months depend on the moon, the years on the course of the sun.

Chapter 58. On the eclipse of the sun.
1. There is an eclipse of the sun as often as the thirtieth moon reaches the same line where the sun is passing, and, interposing itself, darkens the sun. For we see that the sun is eclipsed when the moon's orb comes opposite to it.

Chapter 59. On the eclipse of the moon.
1. There is an eclipse of the moon as often as the moon runs into the shadow of the earth. For it is thought to have no light of its own but to be illumined by the sun, whence it suffers eclipse if the shadow of the earth comes between it and the sun. The fifteenth moon suffers this until it passes out from the center and shadow of the interposing earth and sees the sun and is seen by the sun.

Chapter 60. On the distinction between stella, sidus, and astrum.
1. Stellae, sidera, and astro differ from one another. For Stella is any separate star. Sidera are made of very many stars, as Hyades, Pleiades. Astra are large stars as Orion, Bootes. But the writers confuse these names, putting astro for stella and stella for sidera.

Chapter 61. On the light of the stars.
1. Stars are said to have no light of their own, but to be lighted by the sun like the moon.

Chapter 62. On the position of the stars.
1. Stars are motionless, and being fixed are carried along by the heavens in perpetual course, and they do not set by day but are obscured by the brilliance of the sun.

Chapter 63. On the courses of the stars.
1. Stars either are borne along or have motion. Those are borne along which are fixed in the heavens and revolve with the heavens. Certain have motion, like the planets, that is, the wandering stars, which go through roaming courses, but with definite limitations.

Chapter 64. On the varying courses of the stars.
1. According as stars are carried on different orbits of the heavenly planets, certain ones rise earlier and set later, and certain rising later come to their setting earlier. Others rise together and do not set at the same time. But all in their own time revolve in a course of their own.

Chapter 65. On the distances of the stars.
1. Stars are at different distances from the earth and therefore, being of unequal brightness, they are more or less plain to the sight; many are larger than the bright ones which we see, but being further away they appear small to us.

Chapter 66. On the circular number of the stars.
1. There is a circular number of the stars by which it is said to be known in what time each and every star finishes its orbit, whether in longitude or latitude.

2. For the moon is said to complete its orbit in eight years, Mercury in twenty, Lucifer in nine, the sun in nineteen, Pyrois in fifteen, Phaeton in twelve, Saturn in thirty. When these are finished, they return to a repetition of their orbits through the same constellations and regions.

3. Certain stars being hindered by the rays of the sun become irregular, either retrograde or stationary, as the poet relates, saying:

         Sol tempora dividit aevi
         Mutat nocte diem, radiisque potentibus astra
         Ire vetat, cursusque vagos statione moratur.

Chapter 67. On the wandering stars.
1. Certain stars are called planetae, that is, wandering, because they hasten around through the whole universe with varying motions. . . .

Chapter 68.
1. Praecedentia or antegradatio of stars is when a star seems to be making its usual course and [really] is somewhat ahead of it.

Chapter 69.
1. Remotio or retrogradatio of stars is when a star, while moving on its regular orbit, seems at the same time to be moving backward.

Chapter 70.
1. The status of stars means that while a star is continuing its proper motion it nevertheless seems in some places to stand still.

Chapter 71. On the names of stars.
3. Stellae is derived from stare, because the stars always remain (stant) fixed in the heavens and do not fall. As to our seeing stars fall, as it were, from heaven, they are not stars but little bits of fire that have fallen from the ether, and this happens when the wind, blowing high, carries along with it fire from the ether, which as it is carried along gives the appearance of falling stars. For stars cannot fall; they are motionless (as has been said above) and are fixed in the heavens and carried around with them.

16. A comet is so-called because it spreads light from itself as if it were hair (comas). And when this kind of star appears it indicates pestilence, famine, or war.

17. Comets are called in the Latin crinitae because they have a trail of flames resembling hair (in modum crinium). The Stoics say there are over thirty of them, and certain astrologers have written down their names and qualities.

20. The planets are stars which are not fixed in the heavens, like the rest, but move along in the air. . . . Sometimes they move towards the south, sometimes towards the north, generally in a direction opposite to that of the universe, sometimes with it, and their Greek names are Phaeton, Phaenon, Pyrois, Hesperus, Stilbon.

21. To these the Romans have given the names of their gods, that is, of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury. Deceiving themselves and wishing to deceive [others] into worship of these gods, who had bestowed upon them somewhat in accordance with the desire of the world, they pointed to the stars in heaven, saying that that was Jove’s star, that Mercury’s, and the empty idea arose. This erroneous belief the devil cherished, but Christ destroyed.

22. Moreover as to the constellations which are given names by the heathen, in which the likeness of living creatures is traced by means of the stars, like Arctos, Aries, Taurus, Libra, and others, they who first discerned constellations in a number of stars were influenced by superstitious vanity and imagine a bodily form, giving them, because of certain reasons, the likenesses and names of their gods.

23. For they named Aries, the first constellation—to which, as to Libra, they assign the middle line of the universe— after Jupiter Ammon, on whose head image makers fix the horns of a ram (arietis cornua).

24. This the heathen set as the first among the constellations because in the month of March, which is the beginning of the year, they say the sun is moving in that constellation.

26. Cancer, too, they so named because when the sun comes to that constellation in the month of June, it begins to move backward in the manner of a crab (in modum cancri), and brings in the shorter days; for in this creature front and rear are indistinguishable and it advances either way, so that its fore part may be behind and its back part before.

32. Moreover Aquarius and Pisces they named from the rainy season, because heavier rains fall in winter when the sun turns at these constellations. And it is a wonderful folly of the heathen that they have raised to the heavens not only fish, but rams also, and he-goats and bulls, she-bears and dogs, crabs and scorpions. They have also placed among the stars of heaven an eagle and a swan, in memory of Jove, because of the myths about him.

33. They believed, too, that Perseus and his wife Andromeda were received into the heavens after their death, so they marked out likenesses of them in the stars, and did not blush to call them by their names.

37. But by whatever fashion of superstition these are named by men, they are nevertheless stars, which God made at the beginning of the universe and ordained to mark the seasons with regular motion.

38. Therefore observations of these constellations, or nativities, or the rest of the superstition that attaches itself to the observance of the stars—that is, to a knowledge of the fates—and is doubtless opposed to our faith, ought to be ignored by Christians in such a way that it would seem they had not been written.

39. But a good many, enticed by the fairness and brightness of the constellations, have in their blindness fallen into the errors of the stars, so that they endeavor to foreknow future events by the noxious computations that are called mathesis; but not only the teachers of the Christian religion, but also Plato and Aristotle and others of the heathen, moved by truth, condemned them with unanimous opinion, saying that confusion as to [future] things was produced rather from such a belief.

40. For if, as they say, men are driven by the compulsion of their birth to various kinds of acts, why should the good deserve praise, or the evil feel the vengeance of the law. . . .

41. This succession of the seven secular disciplines was terminated in astronomy by the philosophers for this purpose forsooth, that it might free souls, entangled by secular wisdom, from earthly matters, and set them at meditation upon the things on high.

BOOK V
On Laws and Times

Chapter 1. On law-givers.
1. Moses first of all set forth the divine laws in the sacred writings for the Hebrew people. King Phoroneus was the first to establish laws and courts for the Greeks.
 
2. Mercurius Trismegistus first gave laws to the Egyptians. Solon first legislated for the Athenians. Lycurgus first made rules of law for the Lacedaemonians and pretended Apollo's authority for them.
 
Chapter 38. On generations and ages.
5. Age (aetas) is used properly in two ways: for it is either the age of man, as infancy, prime, old age; or the age of the world, whose first age is from Adam to Noe; the second, from Noe to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the migration of Judah to Babylon; the fifth, from then to the coming of the Saviour in the flesh; the sixth, which is now in progress and which will continue until the world is ended.
 
6. Julius Africanus was the first of our [writers] to set forth in the style of simple history, in the time of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the passing of these ages by generations and reigns. Then Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and the priest Hieronymus of holy memory, published a complex history of chronological tables, using reigns and dates at the same time.
 
7. Then others, among them especially Victor, bishop of the church of Tununa, reviewed the histories of earlier writers and filled out the deeds of subsequent ages down to the consulate of the second emperor Justinus.
 
8. We have noted with what brevity we could the total of these times from the beginning of the world to the emperor Augustus Heraclius and Suinthilanus, king of the Goths, adding at the side a column of dates by the evidence of which the total of past time may be known.
 
Chapter 39. On the ordering of times (chronology).
1. The first age contains at its beginning the creation of the world. On the first day under the name of light God created the angels; on the second, under the name of firmament, the heavens; on the third, under the name of parting, the waters and the land; on the fourth day, the lights of heaven; on the fifth, living things of the waters; on the sixth, living things of the land and man, whom he called Adam.
 
2. Adam in his 230th year begat Seth, from whom [sprang] the children of God. [Year] 230
 
Seth in his 205th year begat Enos, who began to call upon the name of the Lord. 435
 
Enos in his 190th year begat Cainan. 625
 
Cainan in his 170th year begat Malaleel. 795
 
Second Age
5. Sem in the second year after the flood begat Arphaxad, from whom sprang the Chaldeans. 2244
 
Arphaxad in his 135th year begat Sala, from whom sprang the Samaritans and Indians. 2379
 
Sala in his 130th year begat Heber, from whom sprang the Hebrews. 2509
 
6. Heber in his 144th year begat Phaleg. The tower was built. 2643
 
Phaleg in his 130th year begat Ragan. The gods are first worshiped. 2773
 
Ragan in his 132nd year begat Seruch. The kingdom of the Scythians begins. 2905
 
7. Seruch in his 130th year begat Nachor. The king of the Egyptians appears. 3035
 
Nachor in his 79th year begat Tharam. The kingdom of the Scythians and the Sycionii appears. 3114
 
Tharam in his 70th year begat Abraham. Zoroaster discovered magic. 3184
 
Third Age
12. Abdon ruled eight years. Troy was captured. 4025 Samson ruled twenty years. Ascanius founded Alba. 4045 The priest Eli ruled forty years. The ark of the covenant was captured. 4085
 
Samuel ruled forty years. Homer is believed to have lived at this time. 4125
 
Fourth Age
13. David ruled forty years. Carthage is founded by Dido. Gad, Nathan and Asaph prophesied. 4165
 
Solomon ruled forty years. The temple at Jerusalem was built. 4205
 
Fifth Age
19. The captivity of the Hebrews, seventy years. Judith writes history. 4680
 
Darius, thirty-four years. The captivity of the Jews is ended. 4714
 
Xerxes, twenty years. The tragedians Sophocles and Euripides are famous. 4734
 
20. Artaxerxes, forty years. Esdras renews the law which was burned. 4774
 
Darius, called also Nothus, nineteen years. This time possessed Plato and Gorgias, the first teacher of rhetoric. 4793
 
25. Ptolemaeus, eight years. The art of rhetoric begins at Rome. 5118 Dionysius, thirty years. Pompey takes Judaea. 5148
 
Cleopatra, two years. Egypt is conquered by the Romans. 5150
 
Julius Caesar, five years. He was the first to possess sole authority. 5155
 
Sixth Age
26. Octavian, fifty-six years. Christ is born. 5211 Tiberius, twenty-three years. Christ is crucified. 5234 Caius Caligula, four years. Matthew wrote his gospel. 5238
 
27. Claudius, fourteen years. Mark published his gospel. 5252
 
Nero, fourteen years. Peter and Paul are put to death. 5266
 
Vespasian, ten years. Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus. 5276
 
41. Tiberius, six years. The Lombards take Italy. 5779
 
Mauritius, twenty-one years. The Goths become Catholic. 5800
 
Phocas, eight years. The Romans are defeated by the Persians. 5808
 
42. Eraclius is now governing the empire in his seventeenth year.
 
The Jews in Spain are being made Christian. The remainder of the sixth age is known to God alone.
 

BOOK VII
On God, the Angels, and the Orders of the Faithful

Chapter 1. On God.
1. The most blessed Hieronymus, a man of the greatest learning and skilled in many languages, first rendered into the Latin language the meaning of the Hebrew names. And leaving out many for brevity, I propose to insert certain of them in this work with their meanings in addition.

2. For the explanation of words sufficiently indicates what they mean. For certain have the reason for their names in peculiar causes. And at the beginning we set down ten names by which God is called among the Hebrews. . . .

Chapter 5. On angels.
2. The word angel is the name of a function, not of a nature; for they are always spirits, but are called angels when they are sent.

3. And the license of painters makes wings for them in order to denote their swift passage in every direction, just as also in the fables of the poets the winds are said to have wings on account of their velocity. . . .

4. The sacred writings testify that there are nine orders of angels, namely, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. And we shall explain by derivation why the names of these functions were so applied.

5. Angels are so called because they are sent down from heaven to carry messages to men. . . .

6. Archangels in the Greek tongue means summi nuntii in the Latin. For they who carry small or trifling messages are called angels; and they who announce the most important things ire called archangels. . . . Archangels are so called because they hold the leadership among angels. . . . For they are leaders and chiefs under whose control services are assigned to each and every angel.

17. Certain functions of angels by which signs and wonders are done in the world are called virtues, on account of which the virtues are named.

18. Those are powers to whom hostile virtues are subject, and the/ are called by the name of powers because evil spirits are com trained by their power not to harm the world as much as they desire.

19. Principalities are those who are in command of the hosts of the angels. And they have received the name of principality because they send the subordinate angels here and there to do the divine service. . . .

20. Dominions are they who are in charge even of the virtues and principalities, and they are called dominions because they rule the rest of the hosts of the angels.

21. Thrones are the hosts of angels who in the Latin are called sedes; and they are called thrones because the creator presides over them, and through them accomplishes his decisions.

22. Cherubim . . . are the higher hosts of angels who, being placed nearer, are fuller of the divine wisdom than the rest. ...

24. The seraphim in like manner are a multitude of angels, and the word is translated from the Hebrew into the Latin as ardentes or incendentes, and they are called ardentes because between them and God no other angels stand, and therefore the nearer they stand in his presence the more they are lighted by the brightness of divine light.

25. And they veil the face and feet of God sitting on his throne, and therefore the rest of the throng of angels are not able to see fully the essence of God, since the seraphim cover him.

28. To each and every one, as has been said before, his proper duties are appointed, and it is agreed that they obtained these according to merit at the beginning of the world. That angels have charge over both places and n.sn, an angel testifies through the prophet, saying: “Princeps regni Persarum mihi restitit” (Dan. x. 13).

29. Whence it is evident that there is no place that angels have not charge of. They have charge also over the beginnings of all works.

30. Such is the order or classification of the angels who after the fall of the wicked stood in celestial strength. For after the apostate angels fell, these were established in the continuance of eternal blessedness.

32. As to the two seraphim that are read of in Isaiah, they show in a figure the meaning of the Old and the New Testament. But as to their covering the face and feet of God, it is because we cannot know the past before the universe, nor the future after the universe, but according to their testimony we contemplate only the intervening time.

Chapter 6. On men who received prophetic names.
1. Most of the men of early times have the origin of their names in appropriate causes. And their names have been given in such a prophetic way that they are in harmony with either their future or their antecedent causes.

2. However we shall now examine merely their literal meaning in history, without touching on the inner meaning of the spirit.

Chapter 11. On martyrs.
4. There are two kinds of martyrs, one in open suffering, the other in the hidden virtue of the spirit. For many, enduring the lyings-in-wait of the enemy and resisting all carnal desires, have become martyrs even in time of peace, because they have sacrificed themselves in their heart to the omnipotent God, and if they had lived in time of persecution, they could have been martyrs in reality.

Chapter 12. On the clergy.
4. The order of bishops is four-fold, namely, patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops.

5. Patriarch in the Greek tongue means highest of the fathers, because he holds the first, that is, the Apostolic place, and he is honored by such a name because he holds the highest office, as for example, the patriarch of Rome, Antioch or Alexandria.
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BOOK VIII
The Church and the Different Sects

Chapter 1. On the church and the synagogue.
4. The church began at the place where the holy spirit came from heaven and filled those who were sitting together.

5. In view of its present sojourn in strange parts the church is called Sion, because from the distant viewpoint of this sojourn it contemplates the promise of heavenly things, and therefore it has received the name Sion, that is, contemplation.

6. Moreover in view of the peace of the future land it is called Jerusalem, for Jerusalem means vision of peace. For there, all suffering ended, it shall possess with near contemplation the peace which is Christ.

Chapter 3. On heresy.
1. Haernis is so-called in the Greek from choosing, because, forsooth, each one chooses for himself what seems to him to be better, r.s the Peripatetic philosophers, the Academic, the Epicureans, and the Stoics, or as others who, following perverse belief, have departed from the church of their own free will.

2. And so heresy is named in the Greek from its meaning of choice, since each at his own will chooses what he pleases to teach or believe. But we are not permitted to believe anything of our own will, nor to choose what someone has believed of his.

3. We have God’s apostles as authorities, who did not themselves of their own will choose anything of what they should believe, but they faithfully transmitted to the nations the teaching received from Christ. And so, even if an angel from heaven shall preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema.

Chapter 5. On the heresies of the Christians.
69. There are also other heresies without founders or names: some of whom believe that God has three forms; and others say that the divinity of Christ is capable of suffering; and others set a date in time to the generation of Christ by the Father. Others believe that by the descent of Christ the liberation of all in the lower regions was accomplished; others deny that the soul is the image of God; others think that souls are changed to demons and to animals of every sort; others hold different views about the constitution of the universe; others think there are innumerable universes; others make water co-eternal with God; others go on their bare feet; others do not eat in company with men.

70. These heresies have arisen against the catholic faith and have been condemned beforehand by the apostles and the holy fathers, or by the councils, and while they are not consistent with one another, being divided among many different errors, they still conspire with one assent against the church of God. But whoever understands the holy Scripture otherwise than as the sense of the Holy Spirit, by whom it was written, demands, though he do not withdraw from the church, he can be still called a heretic.

Chapter 6. On the heathen philosophers.
1. Philosophers are so-called by a Greek name, which in Latin means amatores sapientiae. For he is a philosopher who has a knowledge of divine and human things, and keeps wholly to the way of right living.

2. The name of the philosophers is said to have first originated with Pythagoras. For when the ancient Greeks boastfully named themselves sophists, that is, wise men, or teachers of wisdom, he was asked what he professed to be, and he modestly replied that he was a philosopher, that is, lover of wisdom, since to make a profession of wisdom seemed very arrogant.

3. And so in later times it became the practice to give only the name of philosopher, no matter how great the learning in matters pertaining to wisdom each seemed to himself or to others to possess. And these philosophers are divided into three classes: for they are either natural philosophers (physici), or moral (ethici), or rational (logici).

4. The natural philosophers are so-called because they treat of nature. . . .

5. The moral philosophers are so-called because they discuss morals. . . .

6. The rational philosophers are so named because they add reason to nature and morals. . . . These are divided into their schools, some having names from their founders, as Platonici, Epicurci, Pythagorici; others from their places of meeting, as Peripatetici, Stoici, Academici.

7. The Platonici are named from the philosopher Plato. They assert that God is the creator of souls, the angels of bodies; they say that after many cycles of years souls return to different bodies.

9. [The Stoics] assert that no one is happy without virtue. They claim that every sin is equally sinful, saying: “He is as guilty who steals chaff as he who steals gold, he who kills a waterfowl as he who kills a horse; for it is not the thing but the spirit (non animal sed animus) that makes the sin.”

10. These also say that the soul perishes with the body. They love the virtue of self-control, and seek eternal glory although they assert that they are not immortal.

11. The Academici are named from Academia, Plato’s villa at Athens, where he taught. These believe that all things are uncertain; but although it must be admitted that many things which God willed to surpass the understanding of man, are uncertain and hidden from us, yet there are very many things which can be received by the senses and apprehended by man.

15. The Epicureans are named from Epicurus, a certain philosopher, a lover of vanity not of wisdom, whom the very philosophers themselves called a swine because he wallowed in carnal filth and asserted that bodily pleasure was the highest good, and even said that the universe was not formed and ruled by a divine Providence.

16. But he assigned the origin of things to atoms, that is, to indivisible material bodies, from the chance combination of which all things arise and have arisen. He said that God did nothing, that all things are corporeal, that the soul is not different from the body. And so he said, “I shall not exist after I die.”

22. These errors of the philosophers have given rise also to heresies in the church. . . .

23. When it is said that the soul perishes, Epicurus is honored; and the denial of the resurrection of the flesh is taken from all the philosophers; and where matter is put on an equality with God, it is the teaching of Zeno; and where anything is read about a God of fire, Heraclitus comes in. The same material is used and the same errors are embraced over and over by heretics and philosophers.

Chapter 7. On poets.
1. Tranquillus thus tells why poets were so named: “When men putting off savagery first began to have a settled mode of life and to obtain a knowledge of themselves and their gods, they contrived a modest way of living and necessary words for themselves, but sought for magnificence in each for the worship of their gods.

2. And so, just as they made temples more beautiful than the homes of that time, and images larger than men’s bodies, so they thought that [the gods] must be honored with an eloquence even more stately, and they extolled their merits in splendid words and pleasure-giving verse.”

10. The function of a poet is in this, that by the aid of a figurative and indirect mode of speech he gracefully changes and transforms to a different aspect what has really taken place. But Lucan is not placed in the number of poets because he seems to have composed a history, not a poem.

Chapter 8. On the sibyls.
3. The most learned authors relate that there were ten Sibyls. Of whom the first was the Persian; the second, the Libyan; the third, the Delphian, born in the temple of the Delphian Apollo, who foretold the Trojan wars and very many of whose verses Homer inserted in his work; the fourth, the Cimmerian in Italy; the fifth, the Erythraean, Herophyla by name, born in Babylon, who foretold to the Greeks on their way to Ilium that they would perish and Homer would write lies; she was called Erythraean because her verses were found in that island; the sixth, the Samian. . . .

5. The seventh, the Sibyl of Cumae, who brought nine books to Tarquinius Priscus in which were written the secrets’ of Rome. ...

6. The eighth, the Sibyl of Hellespont, born in Trojan territory, who is said to have lived in the days of Solon and Cyrus. . . . The ninth, who prophesied at Ancyra. The tenth, the Sibyl of Tibur, Albunea by name.

7. Verses of all these are published, in which it is manifestly proved that they wrote many things about God and Christ and the heathen. The Erythraean Sibyl, however, is said to be the most celebrated and famous of them all.

Chapter 9. On the magi.
1. The first of the magi was Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, whom Ninus, king of the Assyrians, slew in battle, and of whom Aristotle writes that on the evidence of his works it is clear that he composed 2,000,000 verses.

2. This art was enlarged by Democritus many centuries later when Hippocrates was famous for his knowledge of medicine. . . .

3. And so this vanity of the magic arts flourished during many generations in the whole world by the teaching of the bad angels, through a certain knowledge of the future and the summoning up of infernal spirits. Their inventions are divinations, auguries, the so-called oracles, and necromancy.

4. And there is no miracle in the feats of the magicians, whose arts of wickedness reached such perfection that they actually resisted Moses by wonders very like his, turning twigs to serpents and water to blood.

5. It is said that there was a very famous magician, Circe, who turned Ulysses’ companions into beasts. We also read of a sacrifice which the Arcadians offered to their god Lycaeus when all who ate of it were changed to the shapes of beasts. 

6. And it is plain that the famous poet wrote\pf a certain woman who excelled in the magic arts: “She promises to soothe by her charms the minds of whomsoever she wishes, and to cause others cruel anxieties; to stay the current in the stream, to turn the stars back. She summons the spirits of the dead at night; you shall hear the earth bellow beneath your feet and see the ash trees come down the mountain side.”

7. Why should I tell further of the sorceress—if it is right to believe it—how she summoned the soul of the prophet Samuel from the secret places of hell and presented him to the gaze of the living—if we are to believe that it was the soul of the prophet and not some fantastic deceit created by the trickery of Satan.

8. Prudentius, too, tells of Mercury: “It is said that he recalled the souls of the dead to the light by the power of the wand he held, and others he condemned to death.” And a little later he adds: “The wicked art can summon unsubstantial forms with its magic murmur and utter incantations over sepulchral ashes, and others it can deprive of life.”

9. The magi are they who ate usually called malefic because of the greatness of their guilt. They throw the elements into commotion, disorder men’s minds, and without any draught of poison they kill by the mere virulence of a charm,

10. . . . They summon demons, and dare to work such juggleries that each one slays his enemies by evil arts. They use blood also, and victims, and often touch dead bodies.

11. Necromancers are they by whose incantations the dead appear to revive and prophesy and answer questions. ... To summon them blood is thrown on a corpse; for they say demons love blood, and therefore as often as necromancy is practiced blood is mixed with water, that they may be more easily attracted owing to the color of blood.

12. The hydromantii are so named from water. For it is hydromancy to summon the shades of demons by looking into water and to see their likenesses or mockeries, and to be told some things by them, while the pretense is made that it is actually the dead who are being questioned by the aid of blood.

13. This sort of divination is said to have been introduced by the Persians. Varro says there are four kinds of divination, namely, by earth, air, water, fire; hence geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy.

14. Divini (sooth-sayers) are so called as if they were Deo pleni (full of God); for they pretend that they are full of divinity and they guess men’s future by a deceitful cleverness.

There are two sorts of [this] divination, skill and frenzy.

16. Arioli (sooth-sayers) are so named because they utter their execrable prayers at the altars (aras) of idols and make funeral offerings, and because of their solemn observances they receive responses from demons.

23. The genethliaci are so named because of their observance of natal days. They lay out men’s nativities according to the twelve constellations of heaven, and by the course of the stars endeavor to foretell the characters, deeds, and fortunes of the new-born, that is, under what sign each has been born, and what result it has for the life of him who is born.

25. At first the interpreters of the stars were called magi, as is read of those who announced the birth of Christ in the Gospel; later they had only the name of mathematici.

26. A knowledge of this art was granted up to the time of the Gospel, that when Christ was born no one after that should read the nativity of anyone from heaven.

30. To these belong also the ligatures, with their accursed remedies, which medical science condemns, whether in charms or in signs or in suspending and binding articles.

31. In all these the demonic art has arisen from a pestilential association of men and bad angels. Whence all must be avoided by Christians and rejected and condemned with thorough-going malediction.

Chapter 10. On the heathen.
2. The Gentiles are they who are without the law and have not yet believed. Moreover they are called Gentiles because they are in their congenital state, that is, just as in the flesh they have plunged down into sin, to wit, serving idols and not yet regenerate.

Chapter 11. On the gods of the heathen.
1. They whom the pagans assert to be gods are known to have been men at one time, and in accordance with the life and services of each one they began to be worshiped among their own people after their death, as, in Egypt, Isis; in Crete, Jove; among the Moors, Juba; among the Latins, Faunus; among the Romans, Quirinus.

2. . . . And in their praises the poets, too, have helped, and by writing poems have raised them up to the heavens.

3. It is said that the invention of certain arts has given rise to worship, as medicine for Aesculapius, craftsmanship for Vulcan. And they get their names from their activities, as Mercurius because he is in charge of merchandise; Liber from liberty.

4. There were also certain brave men and founders of cities, upon whose death men, because they loved them, made images of them, so as to have some comfort from the contemplation of their likenesses, but this error, it is now plain, so insinuated itself among later men by the influence of demons, that the persons whom earlier men honored for the sake of memory and nothing else, were believed by their successors to be gods, and were worshiped.

5. The use of images arose when, because of longing for the dead, likenesses or representations were made of them as if they had been received into heaven. And demons substituted themselves to be worshiped on earth in their place, and persuaded deceived and wretched men that sacrifices should be made to them.

12. While wicked pride, whether of men or of demons, commands and desires this worship, on the other hand pious humility, whether of men or of holy angels, refuses it when offered to them and shows to whom it is due.

15. Demons, they say, were named by the Greeks as if δαήμονας, that is, clever and knowing about things. For they foreknow many things that are to come, and because of this they are wont to give some responses.

16. For there is in them a knowledge of things greater than is in human weakness, partly by the keenness of their subtler sense, partly by the experience of very long life, partly by God’s command as revealed by the angels. They are strong in the nature of their aerial bodies.

17. Before their transgression, indeed, they had celestial bodies. But they fell and changed to an aerial quality, and they are not allowed to occupy the purer stretches of yonder airy space, but those misty parts, and this serves as a sort of prison for them until the time of judgment. These are the apostate angels, and their chief is the devil.

18. The devil (diabolus) in Hebrew means flowing downward (deorsum iluens), because he despised a calm station at heaven’s height and fell in downward ruin by the weight of his pride; but in Greek devil means accuser, whether because he reports the guilty deeds to which he is himself the tempter, or because he accuses the innocence of the elect with false crimes. Whence the angel’s voice says in the Apocalypse: “The accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who accused them in the sight of God day and night.”

19. Satanas signifies in Latin the adversary, or deserter. He is the adversary, for he is the foe of truth, and struggles to resist the virtues of the holy; and the deserter, because he became an apostate and did not stand by the truth in which he was created; and the tempter, because he demands that the uprightness of the just be tried, as is written in Job.

20. Antichrist is so named because he is going to oppose Christ.’ It is not as certain simple-minded persons understand, that he is called Antichrist because he is going to come before Christ, that is, that Christ will come after him; not so, but Antichrist in the Greek means in the Latin contrarius Christo, for ἀντἰ in Greek means contra in Latin.

21. For when he comes he will say falsely that he is Christ, and he will fight against him, and will oppose the sacraments of Christ, in order to destroy the Gospel of truth.

22. For he will try to repair the temple at Jerusalem and to restore all the ceremonies of the old law; moreover he is Antichrist who denies that Christ is God. for he is opposed to Christ; all who go out of the church and are cut off from the unity of faith are themselves Antichrist.

37. They say that Janus is the gate (janua), as it were, of the universe, or the heavens or the months; they make Janus with two faces because of the East and the West; when they make him with four faces and call him the double Janus they refer this to the four quarters of the universe or to the four elements or seasons. But when they make this pretense they make a monster, not a god.

56. They say that Diana [Apollo’s] sister is at the same time Luna and the divinity of roads. And they represent her as a maiden because nothing grows on a road. And both [Apollo and Diana] are falsely represented as having arrows because the sun and moon send their rays from heaven down to the earth.

81. Pan is a Greek name; the Latin is Sylvanus; the god of the country people whom they invented to represent nature, whence he is called Pan, that is, all. For they pretend that he is made out of every kind of element.

82. For he has horns to represent the rays of the sun and moon; he has a skin, marked by spots, because of the stars of heaven; his face is red to represent the ether; he carries a Pan’s-pipe of seven reeds because of the harmony of the heavens in which are seven sounds, and the seven notes of the voice.

89. These and others are the fabulous imaginations of the heathen, and, being rightly understood, they are such that their worship, though in ignorance, brings damnation.

100. They say manes are the gods of the dead, whose power, they assert, is between the moon and the earth. . . .
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101. Larvae they say are demons made from men who have been wicked. It is said to be their nature to terrify little ones and to gibber in dark corners.

BOOK IX
On Languages, Races, Empires, Warfare, Citizens, Relationships

Chapter 1. On the languages of the nations.
1. The diversity of languages arose after the flood, at the building of the tower; for before that proud undertaking divided human society among different languages (in diversos signorum sonos) there was one tongue for all peoples, which is called Hebrew. This the patriarchs and prophets used, not only in their conversation, but in the sacred writings as well. At first there were as many languages as peoples, then more peoples than languages, because many peoples sprang from one language.

3. There are three sacred languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and they are supreme through all the world. For it was in these three languages that the charge against the Lord was written above the cross by Pilate. Wherefore, because of the obscurity of the holy Scriptures, a knowledge of these three languages is necessary, in order that there may be recourse to a second if the expression in one of them leads to doubt of a word or its meaning.

4. But the Greek tongue is considered most famous among the tongues of the nations. For it is more resonant than the Latin and all other tongues, and its variety is discerned in its five divisions: of which the first is called κοινή, that is, debased or common, which all use.

5. The second is Attic, that is, the Athenian speech which all the writers of Greece used. The third is Doric, which the Egyptians have and the Sicilians. The fourth is Ionic. The fifth, Aeolic, which the Aeoles spoke. In observing the Greek tongue there are definite distinctions of this sort; for their language is divided in this way.

6. Certain have asserted that there are four Latin languages, namely, the early, the Latin, the Roman, the corrupted. The early is that which the oldest Italians used in the time of Janus and Saturn, a rude speech, as is shown in the songs of the Salii; the Latin, which they spoke in Latium under Latinus and the kings of Tuscia, in which the twelve tables were written.

7. The Roman, which began to be spoken by the Roman people after the kings were driven out, which was used by the poets Naevius, Plautus, Ennius, Virgilius, the orators Gracchus, Cato, Cicero, and the rest. The corrupted Latin, which, after the empire was extended more widely, burst into the Roman state along with customs and men, corrupting the soundness of speech by solecisms and barbarisms.

10. Every language, Greek, Latin, or of other nations, any man can grasp by hearing it, or can get from a teacher by reading. Though a knowledge of all languages is difficult for anyone, still no one is so sluggish that, situated as he is in his own nation, he should not know his own nation’s language. For what else is he to be thought except lower than the brute animals? For they  make the sound that is proper to them, but he is worse who lacks a knowledge of his own language.

11. What sort of language God spoke at the beginning of the world when he said “Let there be light”, it is difficult to discover. For there were no languages yet. Likewise [it is hard to learn] in what tongue he spoke later to man’s external ear, especially when he spoke to the first man or to the prophets, or when God's voice sounded corporally' as when he said, “Thou art my beloved son”, where it is believed by certain authorities that he used that one and single language that existed before there was a diversity of language. However among the different nations it is believed that God speaks to them in that same tongue which they themselves use, so as to be understood by them.

12. God speaks to men, not through the agency of invisible substance, but by an embodied being, in which form he has willed to appear to men when he has spoken. The Apostle says also: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels", where the question arises in what tongue angels speak. Not that angels have languages, but this is said figuratively.

13. Likewise it is asked what tongue men will speak in future. The answer is nowhere found. . . .

14. And we have written first about tongues and later about nations for the reason that nations have arisen from tongues, not tongues from nations.

Chapter 2. On names of Nations.
2. The nations among whom the earth is divided are seventy-three. Fifteen from Japhet, thirty-one from Cham, twenty-seven from Sem, which make seventy-three, or rather, as calculation shows, seventy-two, and as many languages began to exist throughout the lands, and increasing they filled the provinces and islands.

25. . . . These are the nations of the stock of Cham, who stock of Sem, possessing the southern land from the sunrise all the way to the Phoenicians.

25. . . . These are the nations of the stock of Cham, who hold all the southern part from Sidon all the way to the Strait of Cadiz.

37. These are the nations of the stock of Japhet, which possessed the half of Asia and all Europe as far as the British Ocean, leaving names to both places and peoples from Mt. Taurus to Aquilo, of which at a later time a great many were changed, but the rest remain as they were.

38. For the names of many peoples have remained in part, so that it is evident to-day whence they were derived, as the Assyrians from Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but they have changed in part, through length of time, so that the most learned men scanning the oldest histories have with difficulty been able to find the origins, not of all, but of some of them.

39. . . . And if all things should be considered, it is evident that a greater number of peoples have changed their names than have kept them, and different reasons have imposed different names on them. For the Indi were so-called from the river Indus which bounds them on the west.

40. The Seres obtained a name from their own town, a people lying toward the East, among whom wool taken from trees is woven.

89. The Goths are believed to have been named from Magog, son of Japhet, from the likeness of the last syllable. These the ancients called Getae, rather than Goths, a race brave and very powerful, of lofty massive stature, fear-inspiring in the matter of arms. . . .

96. The Vindilicus is a river bursting forth in the extremity of Gaul, near which stream the Vandals are said to have dwelt, and to have derived their name from it.

97. The nations of Germany are so-called because their bodies are of monstrous size, and their tribes are terrible, being inured to the fiercest cold, and they have derived their characteristics from the rigor of the climate, of fierce spirit and always unconquerable, living on plunder and hunting. Of these there are very many tribes, varying in their armor and in the color of their dress and with different languages, and the derivation of their names is doubtful. . . . The frightfulness of their barbarism contributes a certain fearfulness of sound to their very names.

100. The tribe of Saxons, dwelling on the shores of the Ocean and among pathless marshes, brave and active. And from this they get their name, because they are a hardy and very strong race of men, and one that surpasses other tribes in piracy.

101. It is believed that the Francs were so-called from a certain leader. Others think that their name comes from the savagery of their character. For their customs are uncouth, and they have a natural fierceness of spirit.

102. Certain suspect that the Britons were so-called according to the Latin because they are stupid (bruti), a people situated in the midst of the Ocean, separated by the sea, as it were, beyond the circle of lands.

105. In accordance with diversity of climate, the appearance of men and their color and bodily size vary and diversities of mind appear. Thence we see that the Romans are dignified, the Greeks unstable, the Africans crafty, the Gauls fierce by nature and somewhat headlong in their disposition, which the character of the climates brings about.

132. The Anthropophagi, a very fierce people, situated in the direction of the Seres. And they are named Anthropophagi because they eat human flesh. And just as in the case of these, so in the case of other peoples throughout the ages, names have been changed either because of kings, or countries, or customs, or some other causes, so that the first origin of their name is not evident, owing to distance of time.

133. Moreover those who are called Antipodes, because they are believed to be opposite to our feet, so that, being as it were placed beneath the earth, they tread in footsteps that are opposed to our feet. It is by no means to be believed, because neither the solid texture nor the center of the earth admits it. Besides, this is not established by any historical evidence, but the poets arrive at this conclusion by a sort of reasoning.

Chapter 3. On kingdoms and terms used in warfare.
2. Whole nations have enjoyed sovereignty each in its own turn, as the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, whose turns the lot of time so rolled around that one was destroyed by another. Amid all the kingdoms of the earth, however, two are said to be more glorious than the rest; that of the Assyrians first, then that of the Romans, being separated and distinguished from one another both in time and place.

3. For as the former was earlier and the latter later, so the former arose in the East and the latter in the West; finally at the destruction of the former the beginning of the latter immediately appeared. All other kingdoms and all other kings are regarded as appendages of these.

BOOK XI
On Man and Monsters

Chapter 1. On man and his parts.
4. Homo is so named because he is made of humus (earth), as it is told in Genesis: “Et creavit Deus hominem de humo terrae.” And the whole man made up of both substances, that is, of the union of soul and body, is termed homo by an abuse of the word.

6. Man is two-fold, the inner and the outer. The inner man is the soul (anima); the outer man, the body.

7. Anima received its name from the heathen, for the reason that it is wind (ventus). Wind is called in the Greek άνεμος; and we seem to live by drawing air into the mouth. But this is most clearly false, because anima comes into being long before air can be received into the mouth, because it is already alive in the womb of the mother.

8. Anima therefore is not air, as certain have thought who have not been able to form a conception of an incorporeal nature.

9. The evangelist asserts that spiritus is the same thing as anima, saying: “Potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et rursus potestatem habeo sumendi earn.” And in regard to the anima of the Lord at the time of the passion, the same evangelist thus spoke, saying: “et inclinato capite emisit spiritum.”

10. For what is it to send forth the spiritus, if not to lay down the anima. But the anima is so called because it lives, and the spiritus because of its spiritual nature, or because it breathes (inspiret) in the body.

11. Likewise animus is the same as anima. But anima is of life, animus of wisdom. Whence the philosophers say that even without animus the life remains, and without the mind, anima endures. ...

12. . . . It is not anima, but what excels in anima that is called mens, its head or eye, as it were. Whence man himself is called the image of Cod in respect to mens. However all those things are united to anima so that it is one thing. The anima has received different names according to the working of different causes.

13. . . . When it gives life to the body, it is anima; when it wills, it is animus; when it knows, it is mens; when it recollects, it is memoria; when it judges what is right, it is ratio; when it breathes, it is spiritus; when it is conscious of anything, it is sensus. . . .

14. Corpus is so called because being corrupted, it perishes. For it is perishable and mortal and must sometime be dissolved.

16. The body is made up of the four elements. For earth is in the flesh; air in the breath; moisture in the blood; fire in the vital heat. For the elements have each their own part in us, and something is due them when the structure is broken up. . . .

18. The bodily senses are five: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Two of these open and close; two are always open.

56. The arteries are so named because the air, that is, the breath, is carried by them from the lungs; or because they retain the breath of life in their narrow and close passages, whence they emit the sounds of the voice, which would all sound alike if the movement of the tongue did not create differences of the voice.

77. Lac (milk) derives its name from its color, because it is a white liquor, for the Greeks call white λενκος and its nature is changed from blood; for after the birth whatever blood has not yet been spent in the nourishing of the womb flows by a natural passage to the breasts, and whitening by their virtue, receives the quality of milk.

86. Ossa (bones) are the solid parts of the body. Fcr on these all form and strength depend. Ossa are named from ustus (burned), because they were burned by the ancients, or as others think, from os (the mouth), because there they are visible, for everywhere else they are covered and concealed by the skin and flesh.

92. Terga, because it is on the back that we lie flat on the earth (terra); men alone can do this, for dumb animals lie either on the belly or on the side; whence the word tergum is applied to them mistakenly.

108. The knees are the meeting-points of the thighs and lower legs; and they are called knees (genua) because in the womb they are opposite to the cheeks (genae). For they adhere to them there and they are akin to the eyes, the revealers of tears and of pity. For the knees (genua) are so called from the cheeks (genae).

109. In short they assert that man in his beginning and first formation is so folded up that the knees are above, and by these the eyes are shaped so that there are deep hollows. Ennius says: “Atque genua comprimit artagena.” Thence it is that when men fall on their knees they at once begin to weep.  For nature has willed that they remember their mother’s womb where they sat in darkness, as it were, until they should come to the light.

118. Cor is derived from a Greek term—what they call Kopfiia (heart)—or, it may be, from cur a (cure). For in it dwell all anxious thought and wisdom. And it is near the lungs for this reason, that when it is fired by anger it may be cooled by the liquid of the lungs. It has two arteries, of which the left has more blood, the right, more air. From it also is the pulse we find in the right arm.

120. The pulsus (pulse) is so called because it beats (palpitet), and by its evidence we perceive that there is sickness or health. Its motion is two-fold; a simple motion which is made up of a single beat, and a composite, made up of several movements—irregular and unequal. And these movements have definite limits. . . .

121. The veins are so called because they are the passages of the flowing blood, and its streamlets spread through all the body, by which all the parts are moistened.

124. The Greeks call the lungs πλενμων, because they are the bellows of the heart and in them is πνευμα, that is, spiritus, by which they are stirred and moved, whence they are called pulmones. . . .

125. Jecur (liver) has its name because in it fire (ignis) has its seat, and from there it flies up into the head. Thence it spreads to the eyes and the other organs of sense and the limbs, and by its heat it changes into blood the liquid that it has appropriated from food, and this blood it furnishes tothe several parts to feed and nourish them. In the liver pleasure resides and desire, according to those who dispute about natural philosophy.

127. The spleen is so called from corresponding to (supplementum) the liver on the opposite side in order that there may be no vacuum, and this certain men believe was formed with a view to laughter. For it is by the spleen we laugh, by the bile we are angry, by the heart we are wise, by the liver we love. And while these four elements remain, the animal is whole.

Chapter 3. On human monstrosities.
1. Portents, Varro says, are those births which seem to have taken place contrary to nature. But they are not contrary to nature, because they come by the divine will, since the will of the creator is the nature of each thing that is created. Whence, too, the heathen themselves call God now nature, now God.

2. A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but contrary to known nature. . . .

4. Certain creations of portents seem to have been made with future meanings. For God sometimes wishes to indicate what is to come by disgusting features at birth, as also by dreams and oracles, that he may give forewarning by these, and indicate to certain nations or certain men coming destruction. This has been proved by many trials.

5. . . . But these portents which are sent in warning, do not live long, but die as soon as they are born.

12. And just as there are monstrous individuals in separate races of men, so in the whole human kind there are certain monstrous races, as the Gigantes, Cynocephali, Cyclopes, and the rest.

15. The Cynocephali are so called because they have dogs’ heads and their very barking betrays them as beasts rather than men. These are born in India.

16. The Cyclopes, too, the same India gives birth to, and they are named Cyclopes because they are said to have a single eye in the midst of the forehead. These have the additional name άγριοφαγίται because they eat nothing but the flesh of wild beasts.

17. The Blemtnyes, born in Libya, are believed to be headless trunks, having mouth and eyes in the breast; others are born without necks, with eyes in their shoulders.

18. In the remote east, races with faces of a monstrous sort are described. Some without noses, with formless countenances; others with lower lip so protruding that by it they shelter the whole face from the heat of the sun while they sleep; others have small mouths, and take sustenance through a narrow opening by means of oat-straws; a good many are said to be tongueless, using nod or gesture in place of words.

19. They say the Panotii in Scythia have ears of so large a size that they cover the whole body with them. For παυ in Greek means all, and ωτα, ears.

21. The Satyrs are manikins with upturned noses; they have horns on their foreheads, and are goat-footed, such as the one St. Anthony saw in the desert. And he, being questioned, is said to have answered the servant of God, saying, “I am mortal, one of the inhabitants of the waste, whom the heathen, misled by error, worship as the Fauns and Satyrs.”

23. The race of the Sciopodes is said to live in Ethiopia. They have one leg apiece, and are of a marvelous swiftness, and the Greeks call them Sciopodes from this, that in summertime they lie on the ground on their backs and are shaded by the greatness of their feet.

24. The Antipodes in Libya have feet turned backward and eight toes on each foot.

28. Other fabulous monstrosities of the human race are said to exist, but they do not; they are imaginary. And their meaning is found in the causes of things, as Geryon, King of Spain, who is said to have had a triple form. For there were three brothers of such harmonious spirit that it was, as it were, one soul in three bodies.

Chapter 4. On transformations to beasts.
2. Moreover they affirm with no fabulous lying but with historic proof, that Diomedes’ companions were changed to birds. And certain say that witches are created from human beings. For the shapes of the wicked change for their many villanies, and they turn bodily into beasts, whether by magic charms or by the use of herbs.

3. Many creatures go through a natural change and by decay pass into different forms, as bees [are formed] by the decaying flesh of calves, as beetles from horses, locusts from mules, scorpions from crabs.

BOOK XII
​On Animals

Chapter 2. On beasts of prey.
17. The Gryphes are so called because they are winged quadrupeds. This kind of wild beast is found in the Hyperborean Mts. In every part of their body they are lions, and in wings and head are like eagles, and they are fierce enemies of horses. Moreover they tear men to pieces.
 
Chapter 4. On serpents.
3. The serpent has received its name because it crawls (serpit) with unnoticed steps; for it does not go with strides that are observable, but creeps on by the trifling impulses of its scales. But those that go on four feet, like lizards and newts, are called not serpents but reptiles. Now serpents are reptiles because they creep (reptant) on their belly and breast; and there are as many poisons as there are genera; as many deaths as there are species; as many dolors, as colors.
 
4. The dragon (draco) is the largest of all serpents and of all living things upon earth. This the Greeks call δράκοντα. And it was taken into the Latin so that it was called Draco. And frequently being dragged from caves it rushes into the air, and the air is thrown into commotion on account of it. And it is crested, has a small face and narrow blow-holes through which it draws its breath and thrusts out its tongue And it has its strength not in its teeth but in its tail, and it is dangerous for its stroke, rather than for its jaws.
 
5. It is harmless in the way of poison, but poison is not necessary for it to cause death, because it kills whatever it has entangled in its folds. And from it the elephant is not safe because of its size. For it lies in wait near the paths by which elephants usually go, and entangles the elephant's legs in its folds, and kills it by strangling. It grows in Ethiopia and in India, in the very burning of perennial heat.
 
12. It is said that when the asp begins to feel the influence of the wizard who summons her forth with certain forms of words suited thereto, in order that he may bring her out from her hole—when the asp is unwilling to come forth, she presses one ear against the earth, and the other she closes and covers up with her tail, and so refuses to hear those magical sounds, and does not come out at the incantation.
 
36. The Salamander is so called because it is strong against fire; and amid all poisons its power is the greatest. For other [poisonous animals] strike individuals; this slays very many at the same time; for if it crawls up a tree, it infects all the fruit with poison and slays those who eat it; nay, even if it falls in a well, the power of the poison slays those who drink it. It fights against fires, and alone among living things, extinguishes them. For it lives in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed, and not only is it not burned, but it puts the fire out.
​

BOOK XIII
On the Universe and Its Parts

Preface.—In this book, as it were in a brief outline we have commented on certain causes in the heavens, and the sites of the lands, and the spaces of the sea, so that the reader may run them over in a little time, and learn their etymologies and causes with compendious brevity.

Chapter 1. On the universe.
1. The universe is the heavens, the earth, the sea, and what in them is the work of God, of whom it is said: “And the universe was made by him”. The universe (mundus) is so named in Latin by the philosophers because it is in continued motion (motu), as for example, the heavens, the sun, moon, air, seas. For no rest is permitted to its elements, and therefore it is always in motion.

2. Whence also the elements seem to Varro living creatures, since, he says, they move of themselves. The Greeks have borrowed a name for the universe from ornament, on account of the variety of the elements and the beauty of the stars. For it is called among them κόσμος, which means ornament. For with the eyes of the flesh we see nothing fairer than the universe.

3. It is agreed that there are four climaia, that is, tracts of the universe: East, West, North, South.

Chapter 2. On the atoms.
1. The philosophers call by the name of atoms certain parts of bodies in the universe so very minute that they do not appear to the sight, nor admit of τομή, that is, division, whence they are called atoms. These are said to flit through the void of the whole universe with restless motions, and to move hither and thither like the finest dust that is seen when the rays of the sun pour through the windows. From these certain philosophers of the heathen have thought that trees are produced, and herbs and all fruits, and fire and water, and all things are made out of them.

2. Atoms exist either in a body, or in time, or in number, or in the letters. In a body as a stone. You divide it into parts, and the parts themselves you divide into grains like the sands, and again you divide the very grains of sand into the finest dust, until if you could, you would come to some little particle which is now [such] that it cannot be divided or cut. This is an atom in a body.

3. In time, the atom is thus understood: you divide a year, for example, into months, the months into days, the days into hours, the parts of the hours still admit of division, until you come to such an instant of time and fragment of a moment as it were, that it cannot be lengthened by any little bit and therefore it cannot be divided\ This is the atom of time.

4. In numbers, as for example, eight is divided into fours, again four into twos, then two into ones. One is an atom because it is indivisible. So also in case of the letters. For you divide a speech into weds, words into syllables, the syllable into letters. The letter, the smallest part, is the atom and cannot be divided. The atom is therefore what cannot be divided, like the point in geometry. . . .

Chapter 3. On the elements.
1. Hyle is the name the Greeks apply to the first material of things, which is in no way formed, but has a capacity for all bodily forms, and out of it these visible elements arc shaped. Wherefore they have derived their name from this source.’ This hyle the Latins called materia, for the reason that everything in the rough from which something is made, is always called materia. . . .

2. The Greeks moreover call the elements στοιχεία because they are akin to one another in the harmony of like quality and a sort of common character, for they are said to be allied with one another in a natural way, now tracing their origin from fire all the way to earth, now from earth all the way to fire, so that fire fades into air, air is thickened to water, water coarsened to earth, and again earth is dissolved into water, water refined into air, air rarefied into fire.

3. Wherefore all elements are present in all, but each of them has received its name from that which it has in greater degree. And they have been assigned by divine providence to the living creatures that are suited to them, for the Creator himself filled the heaven with angels, the air with birds, the sea with fish, the earth with men and other living creatures.

Chapter 5. On the parts of the heavens.
1. Ether is the place in which the stars are, and it signifies that fire which is separated on high from the whole universe. Ether is the element itself; and aethra is the glow of the ether and is a Greek word.

Chapter 7. On the air and the clouds.
1. Air is emptiness, having more rarity mixed with it than the other elements. Of it Virgil says:

          Longum per inane secutus.

Air (aer) is so called from αίρειν (to raise), because it supports the earth or, it may be, is supported by it . This belongs partly to the substance of heaven, partly to that of the earth. For yonder thin air where windy and gusty blasts cannot come into existence, belongs to the heavenly part; but this more disordered air which takes a corporeal character because of dank exhalations, is assigned to earth, and it has many subdivisions: for being set in motion it makes winds; and being vigorously agitated, lightnings and thunderings; being contracted, clouds; being thickened, rain; when the clouds freeze, snow; when thick clouds freeze in a more disordered way, hail; being spread abroad, it causes fine weather; for it is known that thick air is a cloud and that a cloud that thins and melts away, is air.

2. ... Now the thickening of the air makes clouds. For the winds gather the air together and make a cloud. Whence” is the expression: “Atque in nubem cogitur aer.”

Chapter 8. On thunder.
1. Thunder (tonitruum) is so called because its sound terrifies (terreat), for tonus is sound. And it sometimes shakes everything so severely that it seems to have split the heavens, since when a great gust of the most furious wind suddenly bursts into the clouds, its circular motion becoming stronger and seeking an outlet, it tears asunder with great force the cloud it has hollowed out, and thus comes to our ears with a horrifying noise.

2. One ought not to wonder at this since a vesicle, however small, emits a great sound when it is exploded. Lightning is r caused at the same time with the thunder, but the former is I seen more quickly because it is bright and the latter comes to our ears more slowly. . . .

Chapter 9. On thunder-bolts.
1. . . .Clouds striking together make thunder-bolts: for in all things collision creates fire, as we see in the case of stones, or when wheels rub together, or in the woods. In the same way fire is created in the clouds; whence they are clouds before, lightnings later.

2. It is certain that it is from wind and fire that thunderbolts are formed in the clouds, and that they are launched by the impulse of the winds; and the fire of a thunder-bolt has greater force in penetrating because it is made of subtler elements than our fire, that is, the fire we make use of. . . .

Chapter 10. On the rainbow and the causes of clouds.
1. The rainbow is so called from its resemblance to a bent bow. Its proper name is Iris and it is called Iris, as it were acris (of the air), because it comes down through the air to earth. It comes from the radiance of the sun when hollow clouds receive the sun’s ray full in front, and they create the appearance of a bow, and rarified water, bright air, and a misty cloud under the beams of the sun create those varied hues.

2. Rains (pluviae) are so called because they flow, as if fluviae. They arise by exhalation from earth and sea, and being carried aloft they fall in drops on the lands, being acted upon by the heat of the sun or condensed by strong winds.

13. Shadow (umbra) is air that lacks sun, and is so called because it is made when we interpose ourselves in the rays of the sun. It moves and is ill-defined, because of the motion of the sun and the force of the wind. As often as we move in the sun, it seems to move with us, because wherever we encounter the rays of the sun, we take the light from that place, and so the shadow seems to walk with us and to imitate our motions.

Chapter 11. On the winds.
2. There are four chief winds. The first of these is from the east, Subsolanus, and Auster from the south, Favonius from the west, and from Septentrio (north) a wind of the same name blows. These winds have kindred winds one on each side.

3. Subsolanus has on its right Vulturnus, on its left Eurus; Auster has on its right Euroauster, on its left Austroafricus; Favonius on its right Africus, on its left Corus. Further, Septentrio has on its right Circius, on its left Aquilo. These twelve winds surround the globe of the universe with their blasts.

20. ... In the spring and autumn the greatest possible storms appear when it is neither full summer nor full winter, whence, as [the time] is an intervening one, bordering on both seasons, storms are caused from the conjunction of contrary airs.

Chapter 12. On the waters.
2. The two most powerful elements of human life are fire and water, whence they who are forbidden fire and water are seriously punished.

3. The element of water is master of all the rest. For the waters temper the heavens, fertilize the earth, incorporate air in their exhalations, climb aloft and claim the heavens; for what is more marvelous than the waters keeping their place in the heavens!

4. It is too small a thing to come to such a height; they carry with them thither swarms of fishes; pouring forth, they are the cause of all growth on the earth. They produce fruits, they make fruit trees and herbs grow, they scour away filth, wash away sin, and give drink to all living things.

Chapter 13. On the different qualities of waters.
5. Linus, a fountain of Arcadia, does not allow miscarriages to take place. In Sicily are two springs, of which one makes the sterile woman fertile, the other makes the fertile, sterile. In Thessaly are two rivers; they say that sheep drinking from one become black; from the other, white; from both, parti-colored.

10. Hot springs in Sardinia cure the eyes; they betray thieves, for their guilt is revealed by blindness. They say there is a spring in Epirus in which lighted torches are extinguished, and torches that are extinguished are lighted. Among the Garamantes they say there is a spring so cold in the daytime that it cannot be drunk, so hot at night that it cannot be touched.

Chapter 14. On the sea.
2. . . . The depth of the sea varies; still the level of its surface is invariable.

3. Moreover that the sea does not increase, though it receives all streams and all springs, is accounted for in this way; partly that its very greatness does not feel the waters flowing in, secondly, because the bitter water consumes the fresh that is added, or that the clouds draw up much water to themselves, or that the winds carry it off, and the sun partly dries it up; lastly, because the water leaks through certain secret holes in the earth, and turns and runs back to the sources of rivers and to the springs.

Chapter 15. On the ocean.
1. Oceanus is so named by both Greeks and Latins because it flows like a circle around the circle of the land; it may be from its speed because it runs swiftly (ocius); or because like the heavens it glows with a dark purple color. Oceanus is, as it were, κυάνεος (dark purple). It is this that embraces the shores of the lands, approaching and receding with alternate tides. For when the winds breathe in the depths, it either pushes the waters away or sucks them back.

2. And it has taken different names from the neighboring lands; as Gallicus, Germanicus, Scythicus, Caspius, Hyrcanus. Atlanticus, Gaditanus. The Gaditanian strait was named from Gades where the entrance to the Mare Magnum first opens from the Ocean. Whence when Hercules had come to Gades he placed the columns there, believing that there was the limit of the circle of the lands.

Chapter 16. On the Mediterranean Sea.
1. The Mare Magnum is that which flows from the west out of the Ocean and extends toward the South, and then stretches to the North. And it is called Magnum because the rest of the seas are smaller in comparison with it. It is also called Mediterranean because it flows through the midst of the land (per mediant terram) as far as the Orient, separating Europe and Africa and Asia.

Chapter 20. On the abyss.
1. The abyss is the deep water which cannot be penetrated; whether caverns of unknown waters from which springs and rivers flow; or the waters that pass secretly beneath, whence it is called abyss. For all waters or torrents return by secret channels to the abyss which is their source.

Chapter 21. On rivers.
6. Certain of the rivers have received their names from causes peculiar to them, and of these some which are told of as famous in history should be mentioned.

7. Geon is a river issuing from Paradise and surrounding the whole of Ethiopia, being called by this name because it waters the land of Egypt by its flood, for γή in the Greek means terra in the Latin. This river is called Nile by the Egyptians, on account of the mud which it brings, which gives fertility.

8. The river Ganges, which the holy Scriptures call Phison, issuing from Paradise, takes its course toward the regions of India. ... It is said to rise in the manner of the Nile and overflow the lands of the East.

9. The Tigris, a river of Mesopotamia, rises in Paradise, and flows opposite the Assyrians (contra Assyrios), and after many windings flows into the Dead Sea. And it is called by this name because of its velocity, like a wild beast that runs with great speed.

10. The Euphrates, a river of Mesopotamia, greatly abounding in gems, rises in Paradise and flows through the midst of Babylonia. ... It irrigates Mesopotamia in certain places just as the Nile does Alexandria. Sallust, however, a most reliable author, asserts that the Tigris and the Euphrates arise from one source in Armenia, and going by different ways are far separated, an intervening space of many miles being left, and the land which is enclosed by them is called Mesopotamia. Therefore as Hieronymous noted, there must be a different explanation of the rivers of Paradise.

24. Tanus was the first king of the Scythians, from whom the river Tanais is said to have been named. It rises in the Riphaean forest, and separates Europe from Asia, flowing in the midst between two divisions of the world, and emptying into the Pontus.

35. Certain rivers were overwhelmed in the flood, and shut off by the mass of the lands, but certain ones which were not, burst forth by passages that were at that time violently formed from the abyss.

Chapter 22. On floods.
2. The first flood occurred under Noah, when the Omnipotent, offended at man’s guilty deeds, covered the whole circle of the lands’ and destroyed all, and there was one stretch of sky and sea; and we observe the proof of this to the present time in the stones which we are wont to go to see in the distant mountains, which have mingled in them the shells of mussels and oysters, and besides are often hollowed by the waters.

3. The second flood was in Achaea in the time of the patriarch Jacob and of Ogygius, who was the founder and king of Eleusina, and gave his name to the place and time.

4. The third flood was in Thessaly in the time of Moses and Amphictyon, who reigned third after Cecrops. At which time a flood of waters destroyed the greater part of the peoples of Thessaly, a few escaping by taking refuge in the mountains, especially on mount Parnassus, on whose circuit Deucalion then possessed dominion. And he received those who fled to him on rafts, and warmed and fed them on the twin peaks of Parnassus, and so the fables of the Greeks say that the human race was re-created from stones—because of the inborn hardness of the heart of man.

BOOK XIV
On the Earth and Its Parts

Chapter 1. On the earth.
1. The earth is placed in the middle region of the universe, being situated like a center at an equal interval from all parts of heaven; in the singular number it means the whole circle; in the plural the separate parts; and reason gives different names for it; for it is called terra from the upper part where it suffers attrition (teritur); humus from the lower and humid part, as for example, under the sea; again, tellus, because we take (tollimus) its fruits; it is also called ops because it brings opulence. It is likewise called arva, from ploughing (arando) and cultivating.

2. Earth in distinction from water is called dry; since the Scripture says that “God called the dry land, earth”. For dryness is the natural property of earth. Its dampness it gets by its relation to water. As to its motion (earthquakes) some say it is wind in its hollow parts, the force of which causes it to move.

3. Others say that a generative water moves in the lands, and causes them to strike together, sicut vas, as Lucretius says. Others have it that the earth is sponge-shaped, and its fallen parts lying in ruins cause all the upper parts to shake. The yawning of the earth also is caused either by the motion of the lower water, or by frequent thunderings, or by winds bursting out of the hollow parts of the earth.

Chapter 2. On the circle of lands.
1. The circle of lands (orbis) is so called from its roundness, which is like that of a wheel, whence a small wheel is called orbiculus. For the Ocean flowing about on all sides encircles its boundaries. It is divided into three parts; of which the first is called Asia; the second, Europe; the third, Africa.

2. These three parts the ancients did not divide equally; for Asia stretches from the South through the East to the North, and Europe from the North to the West, and thence Africa from the West to the South. Whence plainly the two, Europe and Africa, occupy one-half, and Asia alone the other. But the former were made into two parts because the Great Sea enters from the Ocean between them and cuts them apart. Wherefore if you divide the circle of lands into two parts, East and West, Asia will be in one, and in the other, Europe and Africa.

Chapter 3. On Asia.
1. Asia was so called from the name of a certain woman who held dominion over the East in the time of the ancients. Lying in the third part of the circle of lands it is bounded on the east by the sun-rise, on the south by the ocean, on the west by our sea, on the north by lake Maeotis and the river Tanais. It has many provinces and regions, of which I shall briefly explain the names and sites, beginning with Paradise.

2. Paradise is a place lying in the parts of the Orient, whose name is translated out of the Greek into the Latin as hortus. In the Hebrew it is called Eden, which in our tongue means delight. And the two being joined mean garden of delight; for it is planted with every kind of wood and fruit-bearing tree, having also the tree of life; there is neither cold nor heat there, but a continual spring temperature.

3. And a spring, bursting forth from its center waters the whole grove, and divides into four rivers that take their rise there. Approach to this place was closed after man’s sin. For it is hedged in on every side by sword-like flame, that is, girt by a wall of fire whose burning almost reaches the heaven.

4. A guard of cherubim, too, that is, of angels, is set over the burning of the fiery rampart to ward off evil spirits, in order that the flames may keep men off, and good angels, bad ones, that the approach to Paradise may not be open to any flesh or to the spirit of wickedness.

5. India is so called from the river Indus, by which it is bounded on the west. It stretches from the southern sea all the way to the sun-rise, and from the north all the way to Mount Caucasus, having many peoples and cities and the island of Taprobana, full of elephants, and Chryse and Argyra, rich in gold and silver, and Tyle, which never lacks leaves on its trees.

Chapter 4. On Europe.
2. Europe, which was parted off to form a third part of the circle, begins at the river Tanais, passing to the west along the Northern ocean as far as the limits of Spain. Its Eastern and Southern parts begin at the Pontus, extend along the whole Mare Magnum, and end at the island of Gades.

Chapter 5. On Libya (Africa).
3. It begins at the boundaries of Egypt, extending along the South through Ethiopia as far as Mt. Atlas. On the north it is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, and it ends at the strait of Gades, having the provinces Libya Cyrenensis, Pentapolis, Tripolis, Byzacium, Carthago, Numidia, Mauritania Stifensis, Mauritania, Tingitana, and in the neighborhood of the sun’s heat, Ethiopia.

14. Ethiopia is so called from the color of its people, who are scorched by the nearness of the sun. The color of the people betrays the sun’s intensity, for there is never-ending heat here. Whatever there is of Ethiopia is under the south pole. Towards the west it is mountainous, sandy in the middle, and toward the eastern region, a desert. Its situation extends from the Atlas Mts. on the west to the bounds of Egypt on the east. It is bounded on the south by the ocean, on the north by the river Nile. It has many peoples, of diverse appearance and fear-inspiring because of their monstrous aspect.

17. Besides the three parts of the circle there is a fourth part across the Ocean on the South, which is unknown to us on account of the heat of the sun, in whose boundaries, according to story, the Antipodes are said to dwell.

Chapter 6. On Islands.
2. Britannia, an island of the Ocean, completely separated from the circle of lands by the sea that flows between, is called by the name of its people. It lies in the rear of the Gauls and looks toward Spain. Its circuit is 4,875 miles; there are many large rivers in it and hot springs, and an abundant and varied supply of metals. Jet is very common there, and pearls.

3. Thanatos, an island of the Ocean in the Gallic sea, separated from Britain by a narrow strait, with fields rich in grain and a fertile soil. It is called Thanatos from the death of snakes, for it is destitute of them itself, and earth taken thence to any part of the world kills snakes at once.

4. Thyle is the furthest island in the ocean, between the region of North and that of West, beyond Britain, having its name from the sun, because there the sun makes its summer halt, and there is no day beyond it; whence the sea there is sluggish and frozen.

6. Scotia, the same as Hibernia, an island very near Britain, narrower in the extent of its lands but more fertile; this reaches from Africa towards Boreas, and Iberia and the Cantabrian ocean are opposite to the first part of it. Whence, too, it is called Hibernia. It is called Scotia because it is inhabited by the tribes of Scots. There are no snakes there, few birds, no bees; and so if any one scatters among beehives stones or pebbles brought thence, the swarms desert them.

8. The Fortunate Islands signify by their name that they produce all manner of good things, as if they were happy and blessed with an abundance of fruit. For suited by their nature they produce fruit from precious trees; grape vines of their own accord clothe the hillsides; instead of grass, crops (i.e., wheat) and vegetables are common. Hence, the error of the Gentiles and of the songs of the poets, which suppose this place to be the same as Paradise because of the fertility of the soil. They lie in the Ocean opposite the left of Mauretania, very near the West, and separated from one another by the sea.

12. Taprobana is an island lying close to India on the Southeast, where the Indian Ocean begins, extending in length eight hundred and seventy-five miles, in width, six hundred and twenty-five. It is separated [from India] by a river that flows between. It is all full of pearls and gems. Part of it is full of wild beasts and elephants, but men occupy part. In this island they say that there are two summers and two winters in one year, and that the place blooms twice with flowers.

21. Delos is said to be so named because after the flood which is said to have come in the time of Ogygius, when continuous night had overshadowed the circle of lands for many months, it was lightened by the rays of the sun before all lands, and got its name from that, because it was first made visible to the eye. For the Greeks call visible δήλος.

Chapter 9. On the under parts of the Earth.
9. Gehenna is a place of fire and sulphur, which they think is so named from the valley sacred to idols which is near the wall of Jerusalem, which was filled in former time with bodies of the dead. For there the Hebrews used to sacrifice their own sons to demons, and the place itself was called Gehennon. Therefore the place of future punishment where sinners are to be tortured is denoted by the name of this place. (We read in Job) that there is a double Gehenna, both of fire and of frost.

11. Just as the heart of an animal is in its midst, so also infernus is said to be in the midst of the earth.

BOOK XVI
On Stones and Metals

Chapter 14. On glowing gems.
​7. Dracontites is forcibly taken from the brain of a dragon, and unless it is torn from the living creature it has not the quality of a gem; whence magi cut it out of dragons while they are sleeping. For bold men explore the cave of the dragons, and scatter there medicated grains to hasten their sleep, and thus cut off their heads while they are sunk in sleep, and take out the gems.

Source: Ernest Brehaut, An Encylopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville (New York: Columbia University Press, 1912).