[17] Isidori De Viris Illustribus Liber, cap. 41.
[18] In one of Isidore’s letters, addressed to Duke Claudius (Claudio duci), he says: “Memento communis nostri doctoris Leandri.” This seems to point to formal instruction given by Leander, and possibly to the existence of a school at Seville. Migne, P. L. 83, col. 905.
[19] Isidore, in his life of Leander (De Viris Illustribus, cap. 41), says: “(Leander) fluorit sub Reccaredo (d. 601) ... cujus etiam tempore vitae terminum clausit.” Ildephonsus, in his life of Isidore (d. 636), says of him, “Annis fere quadraginta tenens pontificatus honorem” (Migne, P. L. 82, col. 68). Gregory the Great has a letter to Leander and one to Reccared belonging to the year 598–599 (Migne, P. L. 77, col. 1050–1056).
[20] Gams, Kirchengeschichte von Spanien ii, 2, pp. 89, 101.
[21] Contemporary sources for Isidore’s life are: the passage in the regula of his brother Leander (Migne, P. L. 72, col. 892); the correspondence of Isidore (Migne, P. L., 83, col. 893); Braulio’s Introduction to Isidore’s works (Migne, P. L. 82, col. 65); the life of Isidore given by Ildephonsus, bishop of Toledo (d. 667) in his continuation of Isidore’s De Viris Illustribus; and the letter of the clerk Redemptus, describing Isidore’s death (Migne, P. L. 82, col. 68).
[22] Sancti Braulionis, Caesaraugust. episcopi Praenotatio librorum Isidori, Migne, P. L. 82, col. 65.
[23] The reference in this passage is undoubtedly to the difference between the colloquial Latin and that of the scholar. The same consideration may perhaps explain the decidedly peculiar comment of Ildephonsus on Isidore as a public speaker: “Nam tantae jucunditatis affluentem copiam in eloquendo promeruit, ut ubertas admiranda dicendi ex eo in stuporem verteret audientes, ex quo audita bis, qui audisset non nisi repetita saepius commendaret.” Migne, P. L. 82, col. 68.
[24] This passage is found in Cicero, Academica Posteriora 1, 3, and is addressed to Varro.
[25] Braulio’s list mentions a Liber de Haeresibus which does not appear in Arevalo’s edition, and fails to mention the Liber de Ordine Creaturarum and the Epistolae, which are included. Ildephonsus’s list is still less complete, leaving out the Proœmia, Allegoriae, Numeri, Officia, Regula, De Ordine Creaturarum, Chronicon, De Viris Illustribus, and the Epistolae.
[26] Quadam propria origine.