2. A good many have proved by experiment that these spring from the carcasses of cattle. For in order to create them the flesh of slain calves is beaten, in order that worms may be created from the rotten gore, and these afterward turn to bees. In a correct sense bees (apes) are so called because they spring from boves as hornets from horses, drones from mules, wasps from asses.
BOOKS XIII AND XIV
[On Universe and Earth]
INTRODUCTION
In books XIII and XIV Isidore gives a complete and systematic account of the material universe, taking up and treating in order the heavens, the atmosphere, water, and earth. His treatment of the last two is especially full and constitutes a geographical description of the earth’s surface as known at his time.[339]
ANALYSIS
| I. | The universe (Bk. XIII, ch. 1). | |
| II. | Atoms (ch. 2). | |
| III. | Elements (ch. 3). | |
| IV. | The heavens (chs. 4–6). | |
| 1. | The parts of the heavens.[340] | |
| 2. | The circles of the heavens.[340] | |
| V. | The air and the clouds (chs. 7–11). | |
| 1. | Thunder. | |
| 2. | Lightning. | |
| 3. | The rainbow and cloud forms. | |
| 4. | The winds. | |
| VI. | Waters (chs. 12–22). | |
| 1. | Springs. | |
| 2. | The sea. | |
| 3. | The ocean. | |
| 4. | The Mediterranean. | |
| 5. | Bays, etc. | |
| 6. | Lakes. | |
| 7. | The abyss. | |
| 8. | Rivers. | |
| VII. | The dry land (Bk. XIV, ch. 1). | |
| 1. | The circle of lands (chs. 2–5). | |
| (1) Asia. | ||
| (2) Europe. | ||
| (3) Africa. | ||
| 2. | Islands (ch. 6). | |
| 3. | Promontories (ch. 7). | |
| 4. | Mountains, etc. (ch. 8). | |
| 5. | The lower parts of the earth (ch. 9). | |
BOOK XIII
On the Universe and its Parts