TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE * Italics are denoted by underscores as in _italics_. * Small caps are represented in upper case as in SMALL CAPS. * Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected. * Original spelling was kept, but variant spellings were made consistent when a predominant usage was found, except the variants “encyclopedia”, “encyclopaedia”, “encyclopædia”, and their derivatives, which are preserved as printed. * Footnotes have been numbered in a single series. Each footnote is placed at the end of the paragraph which includes its anchor. * Illustrations have been slightly moved so that they do not break up paragraphs while remaining close to the text they illustrate. * Other emendations made: p. 14: “Yerra” → “Terra” p. 141: placement of anchor for note [267] conjectured. None found. p. 210: “25.” → “9.” and “of the stock of Cham, who stock of Sem” → “of the stock of Sem”, both after checking the Latin original. p. 233: Added “[ON UNIVERSE AND EARTH]” as a general title to “Books XIII and XIV” chapter, both in this page and in the Table of Contents. p. 243: placement of anchor for note [347] conjectured. None found. p. 264: Added “[ISIDORE’S USE OF THE WORD _TERRA_]” as a title to Appendix I, taken from the Table of Contents. AN ENCYCLOPEDIST OF THE DARK AGES ISIDORE OF SEVILLE _In saeculorum fine doctissimus_ (_Ex concilio Toletano viii, cap. 2_) BY ERNEST BREHAUT, A. M. SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK 1912 [Illustration] PREFACE The writer of the following pages undertook, at the suggestion of Professor James Harvey Robinson, to translate passages from Isidore’s _Etymologies_ which should serve to illustrate the intellectual condition of the dark ages. It soon became evident that a brief introduction to the more important subjects treated by Isidore would be necessary, in order to give the reader an idea of the development of these subjects at the time at which he wrote. Finally it seemed worth while to sum up in a general introduction the results of this examination of the _Etymologies_ and of the collateral study of Isidore’s other writings which it involved.