[37] It is not of great length—three hundred and twenty-eight quarto pages in the reprint of Arevalo’s edition in Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, with about one-fifth of each page occupied by footnotes.
[41] The circumstances under which the Etymologies was written are referred to in Braulio’s Introduction and in the life of Isidore by Ildephonsus (both in Migne, P. L. 82, col. 65–68); in the correspondence between Braulio and Isidore (Migne, P. L. 83, col. 910–914); and in the preface of the Etymologies.
[42] The oft-repeated expression, Latinis, Graecis et Hebraicis litteris instructus, found in the Vita Sancti Isidori, deserves no attention. There is no historical basis for the assertion that Isidore knew Greek or Hebrew. In view of the time, it would be more reasonable to demand proof that he did know them rather than that he did not. As to his knowledge of Greek, see Dressel, De Isidori Originum Fontibus in Rivista di Filologia, vol. iii (1874–75), p. 216. The legend of Isidore’s wide linguistic learning persists, however, even in the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. See Art. “Encyclopedia.”
[43] Cf. Etym., 2, 2, 1; 2, 25, 1 and 9; 3, 2. See pp. [111], [120], [125].
[44] The point has been made that Isidore shows his ignorance of the Greek language by the mistakes he made in the use of Greek words in his derivations. A few examples selected almost at random may be useful in this connection, although it must be remembered that the possibility of corruption in the text is always great.
(a) 3, 22, 6. “Chordas autem dictas a corde.” (b) 3, 22, 8. “Lyra dicta ἀπὸ τὸ λυρεῖν a varietate vocum.” (c) 12, 1, 35. “Camur enim Graecum verbum curvum significat.”
Why Isidore in (a) does not give the natural derivation from χορδή is not clear unless his knowledge of Greek was very slight. λυρεῖν, in (b), is a form that is not found in Greek. In (c) camur is not a Greek word written in Roman letters, as Isidore apparently thought. See Harper’s Latin Dictionary. Compare also the form in which Aristotle’s περὶ ἑρμηνείας is cited: de perihermeniis, praefatio perihermeniarum, in libro perihermeniarum (2, 27). Isidore’s Greek has given his editors much trouble. See Migne, Patr. Lat. 81, 328, for comment upon it by Vulcanius, who edited the Etymologies in 1577.