[124] The Etymologiae is to be found in vol. 82 of Migne, col. 73-728; the other works fill vol. 83 of Migne.
[125] Aug. Quaest. in Gen. i. 152. See ante, Chapter IV.
[126] Isidore’s Books of Sentences present a topical arrangement of matters more or less closely pertinent to the Christian Faith, and thus may be regarded as a precursor of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (post, Chapter XXXIV.). But Isidore’s work is the merest compilation, and he does not marshal his extracts to prove or disprove a set proposition, and show the consensus of authority, like the Lombard. His chief source is Gregory’s Moralia. Prosper of Aquitaine, a younger contemporary and disciple of Augustine, compiled from Augustine’s works a book of Sentences, a still slighter affair than Isidore’s (Migne, Pat. Lat. 51, col. 427-496).
[127] For example, Reason begins her reply thus: “Quaeso te, anima, obsecro te, deprecor te, imploro te, ne quid ultra leviter agas, ne quid inconsulte geras, ne temere aliquid facias,” etc. (Migne 83, col. 845).
[128] De rerum natura, Praefatio (Migne 83, col. 963).
[129] See Prolegomena to Becker’s edition.
[130] Migne 82, col. 367.
[131] See Kübler, “Isidorus-Studien,” Hermes xxv. (1890), 497, 518, and literature there cited.
An analysis of the Etymologies would be out of the question. But the captions of the twenty books into which it is divided will indicate the range of Isidore’s intellectual interests and those of his time:
I. De grammatica.