BEDE,

ISIDORE, AND THE EPISTOLA CUTHBERTI

By WILLIAM

D. McCREADY

The Observation has been made frequently enough in the recent and, indeed,
not so recent scholarly literature to have assumed the status of a received truth:
theVenerable Bede, esteemed for both his saintliness and his scholarship, simply
did not like Isidore of Seville. Although Bede knew Isidore's major works, at
least, and used them extensively, he was less respectful of Isidore, we are told,
than he was of his other authorities. On only three occasions does he refer to
Isidore by name, and each time it is to correct him.1 Part of the explanation, it
has been suggested, lies in their sharply differing attitudes towards antique lit
Isidore was a product of the ancient world, says Rich?,
erary culture. Whereas
Bede decisively turned against its cultural and educational legacy, rejecting the
approach, sanctioned by both Augustine and Gregory theGreat, that enlisted the
liberal arts in the service of Christian
was

thought. He also, Rich? goes on to say,

scientific curiosity evinced in Isidore's

distrustful of the broadly-based

works. Despite his acknowleged accomplishments, Bede's own scientific inter
ests were, like those of other educated Anglo-Saxons,
strictly limited. Natural
philosophy writ large was suspect because of the irreligious aberrations towhich
L. W.

!Cf. M.

Laistner,

ed. A. Hamilton

Writings,

"The Library
Thompson

of the Venerable
(1935;

Bede,"

repr. Oxford,

1969),

in Bede:
237-66

His

Life, Times,
at 256; Charles

and
W.

Jones, ed., Bedae

ed., Isidore

opera de temporibus
1943), 131-32;
(Cambridge, Mass.,
Jacques Fontaine,
de Seville:
Trait? de la nature, Biblioth?que
de l'Ecole
des hautes ?tudes hispa

fase. 28 (Bordeaux,
Paul Meyvaert,
"Bede
the Scholar,"
in Famulus
1960), 79-80;
in Commemoration
Essays
of the Thirteenth Centenary
of the Birth of the Venerable
at 58-59; Roger D. Ray, "Bede's
Vera Lex
Bede, ed. Gerald Bonner
(London,
1976), 40-69
1-21 at 16-17. Bede's
as
55 (1980):
dislike of Isidore is now widely
Hist?ri??,"
Speculum
niques,
Christi:

"New Treasures
and Old in Bede's
'De Tabern?culo'
and
See, for example, A. Holder,
Revue B?n?dictine
'De Templo',"
99 (1989):
to "Bede's
who refers casually
well
237-49,
known distrust and lack of reverence for the Bishop
of Seville"
(248).
= Bede De natura
are used throughout. Bede DNR
The following abbreviations
rerum, ed.
= Bede De
123A: 173-234.
Charles W.
Bede DT
ed. Charles W.
Jones, CCL
temporibus,
= Bede De
123C:579-611.
Bede DTR
Jones, CCL
temporum ratione, ed. Charles W. Jones,
= Cuthbert
CCL
123B. Cuthbert Epistola
de obitu Bedae,
ed. and trans. Bertram
Epistola
sumed.

Colgrave

and R. A. B. Mynors,
=
Isidore DNR

579-87.

1969),
Isidore Etym.

Bede's

Ecclesiastical

Isidore

of Seville

History
(Oxford,
of the English People
natura rerum, ed. Fontaine
(see above).
ed. W. M. Lindsay,
Isidori Hispalensis
Ep

De

Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae,

sive Originum
libri XX, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1911).
[A new edition of the
iscopi Etymologiarum
is being published
in the series "Auteurs latins du moyen ?ge." To date, however,
Etymologies
have appeared:
Book
Peter K. Marshall
II, ed. and trans, (into English)
only four volumes
ed. and trans.
(1983); Book IX, ed. and trans. Marc Reydellet
(1984); and Books XII and XVII,
?
Pliny Nat. Hist.
Pliny: Natural History, Loeb
Jacques Andr? (1986 and 1981 respectively).]
Classical
1938-1942).
Library, vols. 1-2 (London,

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

76

TRADITIO

itmight lead.2 To C. W. Jones and a number of more recent commentators, the

crux of thematter is Isidore's incompetence, not his excessive zeal. In Bede's
view, Isidore simply did not work to a high enough standard. Hence he turned

to other authorities, scarcely containing his disdain of the Sevillian. "The weak
ness of Isidore's treatmentof cycles ismanifest to the elementary student," Jones

points out; "it would be more than irritating to Bede."3

It is against this background, Jones argues, that one must read Cuthbert's

last days, the famous Epistola de obitu Bedae.

eyewitness account of Bede's
a
former
deacon
and
Cuthbert,
pupil of Bede's who was later to become abbot
ofWearmouth and Jarrow, tells us that two works preoccupied Bede during the
period of illness that preceded his death:
lectionibus
multum memoria
diebus duo opuscula
quas
digna, exceptis
facer? studuit, id est a capite evangelii
ab eo et cantu Psalmorum,
accepimus
sancti Iohannis
usque ad eum locum in quo dicitur "Sed haec quid sunt inter tantos?"
Dei convertit, et de libris Rotarum Ysidori
ecclesiae
in nostram
linguam ad utilitatem

In istis autem
cotidie

ut pueri mei

dicens
"Nolo
quasdam,
exceptiones
episcopi
obitum
sine fructu laborent."
hoc post meum
two pieces
those days there were
[During

mendacium

et in

legant,

the great

the
of work worthy of record, besides
he
the
desired
which
his
of
and
Psalter,
chanting
day
to
he was
the gospel
of St. John, which
tongue
turning into our mother
as far as the words
"But what
from the beginning
profit of the Church,

are

they
Wonders

among

true, and

losing

which

lessons

to finish:

he gave

us every

so many?"
for he

said

their labour

on

of Nature;

and

a
"I

the
Isidore's
book On
from Bishop
is not
my children
learning what

selection
cannot

this after

have

I am gone."]4

Until relatively recently this passage was generally thought to compliment the
Bishop of Seville. Although the point is not particularly clear from Colgrave's
translation, Bede evidently spent the final days of his life translating two texts
the gospel of St John; the other was
natura rerum, extracts of which Bede was rendering in the ver
nacular.5 That itwas theDe natura rerum Cuthbert had inmind is clear: in the
for the benefit of his students. One was
Isidore's De

2
in the Barbarian
and Culture
Pierre Rich?, Education
West, Sixth through Eighth Centu
"Les
Cf. Manuel
C. D?az y D?az,
trans. J. J. Contreni
384-93.
S.C.,
1976),
(Columbia,
et Ville
in Arts
et insulaires aux Vile
arts lib?raux d'apr?s
les ?crivains
si?cles,"
espagnols
au moyen ?ge (Montr?al,
lib?raux et philosophie
1969), 37-46 at 45-46.
ries,

3Jones, Bedae
opera de temporibus,
Vera Lex Hist?ri??,"
16-17.

131. Cf. Meyvaert,

"Bede

the Scholar,"

58-59;

Ray,

"Bede's

AEpistola, Colgrave
5See, for example,

582-83.
and Mynors,
J. A. Giles, The Miscellaneous

Llxxxi;

C. Plummer,

Venerabilis

of the Venerable

Works
Baedae

Hist?rica,

Bede,
2 vols.

6 vols.

(1896;
W. Levison,
"Bede as Historian,"
in Bede: His Life, Times,
1969), l:lxxv-lxxvi;
in the Eighth Century (Oxford,
and the Continent
111-51 at 134; idem, England
Scholars
E.
and
S.
Saints
Duckett,
1947), 332. It has also
(New York,
1946), 42;
Anglo-Saxon
from Isidore. See,
been claimed
that only the Gospel was being translated, not the selections
(London,

1843),

Opera

repr. Oxford,
and Writings,

"The Life of the Venerable

for example, C. E. Whiting,
at
33-34.
See
1-38
below, n. 58.
Writings,

Bede,"

in Bede:

His

Life, Times,

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

and

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

77

it frequently was given the titleLiber or Libri rotarum.6 In Jones's

view, however, itwas Bede's negative opinion of Isidore's book thatCuthbert

Middle Ages

to convey.

wished

"To

what,"

he

"does

asks,

in hoc

refer,

except

to Isidore's

work, where [Bede's] pupils will read mendaciumT Meyvaert agrees, arguing
thatCuthbert distinguishes between the translation of John's gospel, which was
intended for the church at large, and thework on Isidore, which was written for
the benefit of Bede's

students, all of whom knew Latin. Rather than translating

therefore, Bede was compiling a set of corrections,
"
do not want my students (pueri) to read lies,
explaining himself by stating:
and to belabor thiswork fruitlessly aftermy death' (in hoc laborent sine fructu
from Isidore,

selections

post obitum meum)" It is left to Ray to bring out the final implications. What
Cuthbert is telling us, he claims, is that, alongside the translation of St. John's
Gospel, Bede was preparing "a Latin opusculum intended at least to steer his
pupils away from the 'lie' in Isidore's De natura rerum, if not to quash the
whole book. It is not surprising that this liber exceptionum is now lost, for
Isidore's eighth-century reputation was almost that of an official Doctor of the
Church. Bede attacked his errors precisely because his works were everywhere."7
The authenticity of the Ep?stola Cuthberti, while generally assumed, is not
something that can simply be taken for granted. Bolton has pointed to "im
probabilities" concerning the twoworks on which Cuthbert would have us believe
spent his last days. The crux of his argument is that, "if [the Epistola
Cuthberti] really stems fromWearmouth-Jarrow around 735, it is remarkable
thatwe should have almost fiftyMSS of it and not one of the two works from

Bede

the same time and place that italludes to." He also draws attention to a "grotesque
textual history" lacking inmanuscript evidence any earlier than a century after
the events described. In Bolton's view, it looks like an instance of "fictive
. 6, maintains
1: lxxv,
text rotarum needs
that in Cuthbert's
6Plummer, Opera Hist?rica,
to be amended
to notarum, an error repeated by Alan S. C. Ross, "A Connection
between Bede
to the Lindisfarne
Journal of Theological
and the Anglo-Saxon
Gloss
Studies n.s.
Gospels?"
see E. van Kirk Dobbie,
at 494n. On this matter, however,
20 (1969): 482-94
The Manuscripts
1937), 101-02. That some medieval
of Ccedmon's
Hymn and Bede's Death
Song (New York,
scribes were also puzzled
by rotarum is evident from the frequency with which notarum ap
pears

in the manuscripts
is missing

though the word

the reading.

opera de
Lex Hist?ri??,"

7Jones, Bedae
"Bede's

Vera

of Classical
cultura
aliano

Latin Authors

antica

nell'occidente

"Bede
the Scholar,"
131; Meyvaert,
59-60;
temporibus,
Ray,
to the Use
"An Historical
16-17. Cf. T. J. Brown,
Introduction
in the British
latino dal

Isles
VII

from the Fifth

all'XI

secolo,

to the Eleventh

Settimane

in La
Century,"
di studio del Centro
it

at 262; and Michael

22 (Spoleto,
medioevo
1975), 1:237-93
in A New Critical History of Old English Literature,
Background,"
and Daniel G. Calder
(New York,
1986), 5-37 at 16.

di studi sull'alto

"The Anglo-Latin
.Greenfield
ley

Version
of the text (see below, n. 10). It is clear,
the reading in the hyparchetype,
and in Cuthbert's
original. Al
in the Continental
its presence
in the Hague MS
confirms
Version,

of the Insular

that rotarum was

however,

Lapidge,
by Stan

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

78

TRADITIO

the control of a basis

in fact."8 Scholarly reaction to these

claims has been essentially negative. The first of them has some force if one of
the two works at issue was really a Latin treatise intended for a learned audience.
iteration without

Failing that, however, as A. K. Brown points out, it is unsurprising that the two
works that occupied Bede's final days should not have survived. In the seventh
vernacular

century,

were

compositions

by

nature

anonymous

undertakings,

and

would not have been included in the corpus of any Latin works their author may
have

written.

on

comments

Bolton's

the

textual

history,

Brown

goes

on

to say,

seem "overstated, and not really to the point even if they apply."9 A complete
review, ab initio, would not be inappropriate given the number of manuscripts
that have come to light since the ground-breaking work of Dobbie and Ker. In

the interim, however, their interpretations of the textual history seem reason
able.10 Certainly Bolton's handling, or rathermishandling, of Dobbie does not
8
W.

et Human?stica
A Caveat," Medievalia
F. Bolton,
Cuthberti De Obitu Bedae:
"Epistola
1 (1970):
127-39 at 130-31,
133.
.Brown,
at 244,
9A.
"The English Compass
Aevum 47 (1978):
221-46
Points," Medium
n. 78. Cf. H. D. Chickering,
PMLA
of Bede's
91 (1976):
Jr., "Some Contexts
Death-Song,"
n.s.

at 99n.

91-100

the manuscript
Vera

See

also Meyvaert,

tradition

Lex Hist?ri??,"

"Bede

a paper on
68, n. 71, who promises
are
and
Ray, "Bede's
"groundless";
objections
case against the Epistola
is
simply that "Bolton's
the Scholar,"

that Bolton's

showing
16n, who announces

not convincing."
in twelve manuscripts
identifies a "Continental Version"
10Dobbie, Manuscripts,
preserved
from the ninth century to the sixteenth, and an "Insular Version"
recorded in thirty
of the twelfth century and later. The stemma that he constructs
for the
three manuscripts
that date

Continental

Version

three manuscripts,

from the archetype, one containing

the three-manuscript
branch is su
judgment,
of two of its members:
the ninth-century MS,
St. Gall, Stifts

(67) shows two branches

the other nine. In Dobbie's

descending

of the authority
perior because
bibliothek
254, and the eleventh-century

Staatliche
Bibliothek
A. 1.47 (Bibi.
MS,
Bamberg,
The manuscripts
date from the twelfth century or later (61-62).
22). The other ten manuscripts
can be divided
of the Insular Version
the "Symeon Group,"
and the
into the "Digby Group,"

of the "hopeless
of the transmission"
(5, 49). Because
(98), Dob
"Burney Group"
complexity
as the earliest of the
bie does not venture a stemma. However,
he regards the "Digby Group"
on
1 (117-27)
three (95). In Appendix
Dobbie
critical texts of the two versions
provides
for the Continental Ver
opposite pages. As his base texts he adopts the Bamberg manuscript
?
211 ?
of the "Digby Group"
MS Digby
for the Insular Version.
sion, and a manuscript
some virtues in the latter version, he argues that the Continental
Version
is earlier and
Despite
is therefore

to be preferred

(104-05).
have surfaced. See M. L. W. Laistner
writing, many additional manuscripts
and H. H. King, A Hand-List
"Nachlese
(Ithaca, 1943), 120; R. Brotanek,
of Bede Manuscripts
zu den Hss. der Ep?stola
Cuthberti und des Sterbespruches
64 (1940):
159?
Bedas,"
Anglia
.
W.
of Bede's
and Alan S. C. Ross, "Further Manuscripts
90; and most recently,
Humphreys
of the 'Epistola Cuthberti de Obitu Bedae',
and Further Anglo-Saxon
'Historia Ecclesiastica',
Since Dobbie's

Texts
50-55.

of 'Caedmon's

Humphreys
tional manuscript

Hague,
Ker,

and 'Bede's Death Song'," Notes and Queries

220, n.s. 22 (1975):
Hymn'
not recorded by Dobbie,
and Ross
list twenty manuscripts
plus one addi
to which he did not have access. Undoubtedly
the most
important is The

a tenth-century manuscript
first identified by N. R.
Bibliotheek
70.H.7,
Koninklijke
"The Hague Manuscript
of the Epistola
with Bede's
Cuthberti de Obitu Bedae
Song,"

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

79

inspire confidence.11 The present paper, therefore, is premised on the authenticity

of theEpistola Cuthberti. The question it raises iswhether the text of theEpistola
itself and other relevant information can support the anti-Isidorian interpretation
that in recent decades has been placed upon it.
*

should have devoted some attention to correcting Isidore's errors is

not particularly surprising.Whereas the young Bede had been inclined to defer
to the pronouncements of the Fathers, themature scholar did not shrink from

That Bede

necessary criticism of even themost venerable authorities. More than once, he

had learned, his faith had been misplaced.12 It is considerably less likely, how
ever, that he should have produced a work devoted specifically to correcting

natura rerum. He had already written for the benefit of his pupils
his own De natura rerum, a more or less complete reworking of the Isidorian
account.13 Presumably Isidore had been given all the attention he required.
text was one of his earliest works, probably contemporaneous with
Bede's
De temporibus, which was written in 703. Like Isidore's, itwas no more than
Isidore's De

an introduction. The brethren forwhom both it and De

temporibus were intended

"a position
intermediate between
40-44. Ker regards it as holding
Aevum 8 (1939):
two versions, combining
the merits of both and affording important evidence
for
[Dobbie's]
as it stands, expanding
the
the authority of their readings"
(40). He prints the manuscript

Medium

abbreviations.

Colgrave
for their edition.

and Mynors

have

corrected

obvious

errors

in adopting

it as the basis

R. Howlett,
is that of David
Cuthberti
study of the text of the Epistola
in
ed.
Paul
E. Szar
in
Insular
Sources
Culture,
Latin,"
of
Anglo-Saxon
Early
Style
mach et al. (Kalamazoo,
1986), 127-47. Howlett
argues that, like "nearly every extant mon
ument of British-Latin
and Anglo-Latin
literature from the fifth century to the eighth" (146),
The most

recent

"Biblical

in what he calls "biblical

the Epistola
Cuthberti was composed
style." It was a style charac
in varying combinations,
and by mathematically
and chiasmus
terized by the use of parallelism
like Cuthbert's,"
he argues, "it is very difficult
fixed forms. "In a tightly knit composition
to the syntax and the narrative sequence"
either to omit or to interpolate without doing violence

"the changes from his original words are easily detected by comparison
confidence
is not
the original text easily restored" (147). While Howlett's
easily shared, he does point to some interesting features of the text, and his stylistic analysis
some textual problems. He offers a complete
to illuminate
version of the
has the potential
(146). Consequently,
of the variants and

text (134-38)
translation
His reconstruction
is
(139-41).
by an English
accompanied
with emendations
drawn from other Continental manu
upon the Bamberg manuscript,
211 (133).
and Bodleian MS Digby
scripts, the Hague manuscript,
11
is one that
belief that "the history of the two versions
Bolton
states, correctly, Dobbie's
includes long separation after the original, presumably
insular, composition"
(129). However,
was
that CV
he goes on to argue that "it is on the whole probable
[the Continental
Version]

Latin

based

'worked up' from IV [the Insular Version]"

(129), mistakenly
enlisting
... to the
the notion that "everything points
priority of IV" (130).
the Scholar"
58, 60-61.
(n. 1 above),
12Meyvaert, "Bede
13
Fontaine, Trait? de la nature ( . 1 above), 74.

Dobbie

in support of

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

80

TRADITIO

complained about their excessive brevity.14 Its mere existence implies thatBede
did not consider Isidore's treatment entirely satisfactory. Presumably, however,
what was needed was simply a textmore attuned to the specific needs of Bede's

students. Bede's decision to write separate works De temporibus and De natura

rerum represented a novelty in comparison to Isidore, who had combined both
in a unitary treatment. The decision stemmed from Bede's
special interest in

computus, which he later developed by expanding upon De temporibus in his

more mature De temporum rationed Having made that distinction, however,
and reserving his handling of the subjects raised in Isidore's first eight chapters

toDe temporibus, Bede retained the rest of Isidore's text as themodel for his
own De natura rerum.Many years ago Duhem pointed out the extent of Bede's
debt: "Non seulement les m?mes mati?res y sont enseign?es ? peu pr?s dans le

m?me ordre, mais encore l'expos? du Moine de Wearmouth reproduit bien sou
vent, d'une mani?re textuelle, des phrases ou des paragraphes entiers du livre
de

l'Ev?que

espagnol."16

One measure of his reliance on Isidore is the fact thatBede

is clearly dependent
on the Isidorian treatise in twenty of his fifty-one chapters. If we consider his
use of Isidore's Etymologies as well, the number increases to twenty-five. If, on
the assumption that Bede would have attributed it to Isidore, we also count the
De ordine creaturarum, Bede's borrowing from Isidore rivals
his use of Pliny. He draws on Pliny in thirty-one of the fifty-one chapters in his
De natura rerum, and on Isidore in thirty-two, a full sixty-three percent of the
time.17
Whether Bede would have considered De ordine creaturarum an Isidorian
Pseudo-Isidorian

work is at best an open question.18 Our numbers also do not take into account
14See Bede DTR,
15
Cf. Alessandra
Romanobarbarica
16Pierre Duhem,
17
This analysis
ratus to his critical

123B:263.
Praef., CCL
Di Pilla,
"Cosmologia

e uso

delle

fonti nel De

natura

rerum di Beda,"

11 (1991):
129-47 at 129-31.
Le syst?me du monde, vol. 3 (Paris, 1915), 16.
is based on an examination
of the sources mentioned
edition

of Bede's

DNR.

by Jones in the appa

on Isidore is not always high
dependence
est universitas
the sentence "Mundus
123A:194),

Bede's

in DNR
3 (CCL
lighted by his editor. Hence
omnis quae constat ex caelo et terra. . . ." is a direct quotation
of Isidore DNR
9.1 (Fontaine
and in DNR 7 (CCL
123A: 197-98), much of the paragraph
is
207), unnoted in the apparatus;
a quotation,
Isidore DNR
Isidore DNR

not fully acknowledged

in the notes or highlighted
by italics in the text, from
13.2 (Fontaine
24 (CCL
Bede
derives from
225). Further, in DNR
123A:216),
26.13
information that is not in Pliny, despite
the notation "ex
273)
(Fontaine

in the apparatus;
and inDNR 39 (CCL
in addition to the use of Pseudo
123A:224-25),
on Isidore DNR 40.1
and Pliny identified by Jones, Bede
is also verbally dependent
that Bede was
(Fontaine
307). In the latter case Duhem
3:18)
(Syst?me du monde,
suggests

Plinio"

Isidore

direct use of Ambrose

Hexameron
4.7.30
which was
Isidore's
32.1:136),
(CSEL
making
source. On a close comparison
of the texts, however,
that seems unlikely. A counter-instance
is Bede DNR 51 (CCL
where Jones identifies Pliny Nat. Hist. 3.1.3 and Isidore
123A:233-34),
sources. Bede's
use of Isidore's DNR
48.2 (Fontaine
325) as Bede's
See below, at n. 33.
18
See Manuel
C. D?az y D?az, Liber de ordine creaturarum,
Un an?nimo

DNR

here

is uncertain.

irland?s

del siglo

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

81

the extent of the borrowing in each case, which can vary from a few words or
to entire

phrases

paragraphs.

Even

conservatively

estimated,

however,

Bede's

use of Isidore was extensive. Along with Pliny, Isidore was obviously a principal
source.

Isidore's explanations for a number of natural phe

adopts wholesale
nomena, among them thunder, lightning, earthquakes and volcanoes. Thunder
is produced by the breaking up of clouds, when, through thewhirling action of
Bede

thewinds generated in their bosom, they suddenly burst asunder.19 Lightning is

a product of clouds colliding against one another, in much the same way as
sparks result from the striking of flints. Thunder is also produced simultaneously,

but the sound of the thunder reaches the ears more slowly than the sight of the
lightning does the eyes.20 Earthquakes are caused by wind trapped underground
as if in the cavities of a sponge. A roaring noise and a trembling of the earth
follow upon its efforts to escape, as do the fissures that appear in the earth's
surface. Neither sandy soil nor solid ground is susceptible to earthquake, but
Wind
only earth with hollows capable of receiving the wind that produces it.21

figures prominently in the eruptions of volcanoes as well. In a chapter devoted

to the volcanoes of Sicily, and toMount Aetna specifically, Bede says that their
explanation is to be found in a soil, layered with sulphur and pitch, that feeds
the flames, a soil that is also porous and open to the action of the wind.

It is

VII: Estudio
work

was

between

de Compostela,
that the
y edici?n critica (Santiago
1972). D?az y D?az concludes
was
not
but
of
Irish
and was written sometime
Isidore,
provenance,
by
clearly
to C. W. Jones, manuscript
680 and 700 (27). According
evidence with which Diaz

y D?az was
Lindisfarne

not familiar suggests

that it could have been written in Northumbria,
in either
orWhitby.
See D. O Cr?in?n, "The Irish Provenance
of Bede's
Peritia
Computus,"
at 24 In. D?az y D?az argues further that in the earliest stage of its transmission
2 (1983): 229-47
It was only in the second half of the eighth century, with its
the text appeared
anonymously.

on the continent, that the attribution to Isidore begin to appear (23). However,
he
that "Isidore" was a nom de plume assumed by the monastic
the possibility
author
likelihood
is there,
of the treatise and associated
with the work from the outset (28). What
circulation

also

raises

then, that Bede

whom

he would

had a manuscript
have understood

that identified
to be Isidore

the author of the treatise as Isidore, an Isidore

The matter is simply uncertain.

of Seville?

123A:219.
Bede's
19Bede DNR 28 (De tonitruo), CCL
taken from Etym. 13.8.2.
279), with one final clause
123A:219-20.
29 (De fulminibus),
CCL
20Bede, DNR
De
Isidore DNR
30.1-2
(Fontaine
281); Pseudo-Isidore
D?az

source
Most
ordine

is Isidore DNR

29.1

of this chapter comes from

creaturarum
7.9-10
(D?az y
by Isidore's DNR. However,

is provided
132); and Etym. 13.9.2. The basic explanation
a third possible
of thunder from Pseudo-Isidore:
also borrows
explanation
de supe?o?bus
dicunt, dum aer in se vaporaliter
aquam de imis et ignem caumaliter
horr?sonos
tonitruorum
On
Bede's
uncertainty
ipsis confligentibus
crepitus gigni."

Bede

(Fontaine

"Quidam
trahat,
see

here,

T. R. Eckenrode,
Review
22 (1971):
"Venerable
Bede as a Scientist," American
Benedictine
at 495-96.
486-507
21
Bede DNR
49 (De Terrae Motu),
CCL
123A:232.
The first half of this chapter, and the
the basic explanation
of earthquakes,
is from Isidore DNR 46 (Fontaine 319
part containing
and 2.86.200,
Loeb
330.
1:322-24,
21). The latter half is from Pliny Nat. Hist. 2.81.192

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

82

TRADITIO

the combined effect of wind and flame that produces the volcanic activity. The
fire is also fed, Bede tells us, by the waters of the Aeolian
islands. These, it
would seem, force the wind down to the depths of the sea, and would virtually
suffocate it. In seeking its release through fissures in the earth likeMount Aetna,
it fans their sulfurous flame.22

Bede draws on Isidore for his treatment of comets as well, although in this
case the influence of Pliny is at least equally apparent. The relevant short chapter
reads as follows:
Cometae

sunt stellae

tilentiam

aut bella,

rantium modo,
eius

parte

Brevissimum

aliae

non

crinitae,

ventos

aestusve,

immobiles

haerent.

certa

quod

Ixxx. Sparguntur
in occasura
quam

flammis
vei

sed maxime

parte

spatium
et errantibus

caeli

portendent&s.
Omnes ferme

in candida

cernerentur
aliquando

nocentes,

repente

quae

Septem
stellis

aut pes
regni mutationem
er
a//ae moventur
Quarum
sub ipso septentrione,
aliqua
nomen
lactei circuii
accepit.

dierum

adnotatum

ceterisque

crines.

est,
Sed

longissimum
num
cometes

est.23

Much

of this is the result of patching together pieces of Pliny's lengthy treatment

of comets in the second book of his Natural History.2* However, the basic
comes from Isidore, as does the idea
definition?
"stellae flammis crinitae" ?

that comets portend change of rule, pestilence or war. The former is derived
from theEtymologies, perhaps read togetherwith Pliny;25 the latter from Isidore's
De natura rerum.26 The notion that comets can portend wind or heat, and the

rest of the paragraph, Bede owes to Pliny, except that at one point he either
misunderstands Pliny or suffers from a faulty text.Whereas Pliny says that
comets sometimes (nonnumquam) appear in the western sky, Bede claims that
they never do. Essentially, Bede

follows Isidore's account as far as it goes, only

22Bede DNR

50 (Incendium Aetnae),
CCL
123A:233.
This chapter is patched together with
and phrases from Isidore, DNR 47 (Fontaine
321-25).
are stars with tails of hair-like flames, suddenly
24 CCL
123A:216:
"Comets
23Bede DNR

words

or wars, or winds or heat. Some

arising and signifying the change of a kingdom, pestilence,
of them move
like the planets;
others are fixed and stationary. Almost
all of them appear
towards due north, not in any particular part of it, but chiefly in the luminous area called the
Milky Way. The shortest period of visibility on record is seven days, the longest eighty days.
Planets
and other stars also occasionally
have spreading hair. But a comet never appears
in
the western part of the sky." My translation.
Loeb
1: 230-34.
1:230-38.
See especially
Loeb
2.22.89-23.92,
24Pliny Nat. Hist. 2.22-23,
The English
translation (231-35)
has provided
the basis for the translation in n. 23.
25
Cf. Etym. 3.71.16-17:
"Cometes
stella est dicta eo quod comas luminis ex se fundat. . . .
autem Latine crinitae appellantur,
Cometae
crinium flammas spargunt";
and
quia in modum
Hist. 2.22.89,
Loeb
1:230-32:
"cometas
Graeci
vocant, nostri crinitas, horrentis crine
et comarum modo
in vertice hispidas."
sanguineo
26DNR 26.13, Fontaine
aut
273: "Haec cum nascitur aut regni mutationem
fertur ostendere,
matter
bella et pestilentias
The
the
Cf.
surgere."
Etymologies
present
Etym.
slightly differently.

Nat.

3.71.16:

"Quod

genus

sideris

quando

apparuerit,

aut pestilentiam,

aut famem,

aut bella

nificat."

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

sig

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

83

then supplementing itwith themore comprehensive coverage of the topic in the

Natural History. Since Pliny's astronomy had been unavailable to Isidore, it is
unsurprising thatBede should have found him valuable.27
Di Pilla points to themechanistic view of nature?
the strict regard for causes
?
that characterizes much of theNatural History. Bede was strongly
and effects
attracted by it,once, of course, he had abstracted from the Stoic religious frame
work within which itwas embedded.28 Inmatters of astronomy particularly Pliny
offeredmuch fromwhich Bede could benefit. Astronomy was not Isidore's strong

suit. Although he employed some sources of a technical nature, chief among

which was theDe astronomia of Hyginus, his principal authorities were gram
marians or scoliasts. It was to commentaries on Virgil that Isidore looked for
much of his knowledge of the heavens, and the consequence was a grasp of
astronomical matters much more literary than scientific in nature.29
Pliny himself was not always better. The point is illustrated by his conviction
that changes in theweather are largely a function of the influence of the heavens.
Given that the sun is responsible for the turning of the seasons, he argues, each

of the other stars is to be credited with producing particular effects in accordance

with its own nature. In this instance, following Pliny did not enable Bede to
attain a standard any higher than Isidore had represented.30 Elsewhere, however,

access to Pliny provided Bede with material that surpassed by several orders of
sophistication Isidore's elementary astronomy. Hence his short chapter on the
changing colors of the planets is drawn entirely from theNatural History, as is

his treatment on their apsides. In the latter case it is Pliny's words that enable
to explain that each planet has its own distinctive orbit, and can appear
to be moving more quickly or more slowly depending on whether it is closer to

Bede

or furtherfrom the earth. Indeed, the dependence is pronounced enough forBede

to acknowledge it explicitly at the end, by referring us to Pliny for further
. 1 above],
that any trace of book 2 of the
42) maintains
(Trait? de la nature [
or De natura rerum is slight. If Isidore was aware
in
either
the
History
Etymologies
came to him late. There were other books, however, with which he
of it at all, the knowledge
27Fontaine

Natural
was

quite familiar, and which

de Pline dans les Etymologies

who

discusses

he used

J. Oroz Reta,
See, for example,
extensively.
saint Isidore de S?ville," Helmantica
38 (1987):
on the mineralogy
in book 16 of the Etymologies.

de

influence
Pliny's
that Isidore
been excerpts

"Pr?sence
295-306,

Although
full text, his

had at his disposal

rather than Pliny's
itmay have
treatment leans heavily on books 36 and 37 of the Natural History.
28Di Pilla, "Cosmologia"
136-37.
( . 15 above),
29
et la culture classique
See Jacques Fontaine,
Isidore de S?ville
dans VEspagne
3 vols. (Paris, 1959-1983),
2:571-89.
gothique,

wisi

from which Bede borrows verbally

30See Pliny Nat. Hist. 2.39.105-106
1:248-50),
(Loeb
11 (CCL
Isidore makes
similar claims in a number of places. For a
123A:201-203).
see Etym. 3.71.5, where, referring to the stars, he says: "Sed et
statement of general principle,
in DNR

omnes
lemque
cant."

homines

ea

temperiem.

intendunt ad praevidendas
aeris qualitates
per aestatem
suo certis stationibus
enim vel occasu
temporum

Ortu

et hiemem
qualitatem

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

verna
signifi

84

TRADITIO

information.31None of this, however, can be taken to imply any disrespect for

Isidore. His reliance on theNatural History notwithstanding, Bede's use of the
De

rerum

natura

and

other

Isidorian

materials

was

still

far-reaching.

opinion of the De natura rerum

the text appeared in three distinct versions:

focus of our concern here is Bede's

The

specifically. According to Fontaine,

a short recension, produced by Isidore himself, of forty-six chapters, to which
theEpistula Sisebuti was appended; a middle recension, also produced by Isidore,

of forty-seven chapters plus, once again, the Epistula; and a long recension,
produced only at a later period, and of forty-eight chapters, but lacking Sisebut's
letter. It is chapter 48, "De partibus terrae," that distinguishes the second re

cension from the first. The third recension retains this chapter and adds one
more, chapter 44: "De nominibus maris et fluminum." In Fontaine's judgment,
the version of the text known to Aldhelm and Bede was the second recension.
It was sometime shortly thereafter that the third recension ?
of Northumbrian
?
to
circulate.32
origin, interestingly enough
began

Fontaine argues that,while there is no indication in any of his works that he

knew chapter 44, Bede did know and draw upon chapter 48. On closer exami
nation the evidence seems less than compelling, and so itmay well have been
the shorter first recension of forty-six chapters that Bede
31
Bede

DNR

14-15,
Trait?

32Fontaine,
33
See DNR

de

CCL

knew.33 For present

123A:205-07.

la nature

. 1 above),

38, 74, 79. See

below,

at nn. 48-50.

51 (CCL 123A:233-34),
where Bede
invites us to picture a circular representation
of the earth, divided horizontally
and oriented towards the East. The upper semicircle denotes
the lower semicircle, evenly divided in themiddle, represents Europe on the left and Africa
Asia;
on

orbis universus, Oceano

cinctus, in tres dividitur partes: Europam,
solis et Gaditano
Athlanticus
Africani. Origo ab occasu
freto, qua irrumpens Oceanus
?
in maria
inter has Asia
interiora diffunditur
hinc infranti dextera Africa, laeva est Europa;
the right: "Terrarum

Asiam,

et Nilus; xv. passuum

in lon
compar est aliis duabus. Termini sunt amnes Tanais
usque
ergo ab occidente
gitudine, quas diximus fauces Oceani, patent, v. in latitudine. Europa
ad septentrionem, Asia vero a septentrione per orientem usque ad meridiem, atque inde Africa
a meridie usque ad occidentem
extenditur." Although most of this passage
is a direct quotation

magnitudine

from Pliny Nat. Hist. 3.1.3 (Loeb 2:4-5),

the last sentence suggests Isidore DNR 48.2 (Fontaine
a meridie per orientem usque ad septentrionem
325): "Asia autem, ut ait beatissimus Augustinus,
atque inde Africa ab occidente usque
pervenit. Europa vero a septentrione usque ad occidentem,
ad meridiem."
This is the source identified by Bede's
itwas the evidence of
editor; presumably
had in mind as well. For a different view,
familiarity with chapter 48 that Fontaine
cf. Wesley M. Stevens,
"Scientific
in Insular
Instruction in Early Insular Schools,"
however,
Latin Studies: Papers on Latin Texts and Manuscripts
ed. Michael
of the British Isles: 550-1066,
Bede's

W.

at 100. Although
text has "contents parallel with
Bede's
1981), 83-102
(Toronto,
to describe
the diagram in the opposite di
chapter 48," Stevens argues, it "proceeds
rection and does not quote or paraphrase him." Whether
this is significant, given that the structure
of his summary is the same and most of the words
identical, is perhaps open to discussion.
Herren

Isidore's

Nevertheless,
short recension
irrefragable
Etym.

14.2.2,

Stevens may have drawn

of Isidore's De natura

the correct conclusion:

rerum,

that Bede

that itwas

knew. DNR

the first version,

51 cannot

proof that Bede knew chapter 48. He may equally as well have
or even on Isidore's
16.17 (CCL 48:521).
source, De civ. Dei

be

the

taken as

been drawing

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

on

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

85

purposes, however, the point is not crucial. If we go on to ask how many of

these forty-six or forty-seven chapters Bede clearly uses either inDe temporibus
or

own

in his

natura

De

rerum,

the answer

is twenty-seven,

something

between

fifty-seven and fifty-ninepercent of the total.34 Indeed, not only is his borrowing
from Isidore's text extensive, he may have presumed his reader's prior knowledge
of it. There is more than one place where his own De natura rerum would be

difficult to follow were

it not for the guidance that Isidore provides. Possibly

in these passages Bede is relying on his reader's knowledge of Isidore to supply
themissing steps in the logic.

An example is provided by Bede's explanation of the shape of the rainbow,

where a curious reference towax bearing the image of a ring is intelligible only
with Isidore's assistance.35 A similar situation arises in Bede's discussion of the
stars. He begins chapter 11 (De stellis) of his De

natura rerum as follows:

1 (probably),
34The particular chapters he uses are the following:
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16,
17, 22, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 47. It is probably chapter 1 (De
1.1-2 (Fontaine
diebus), more specifically DNR
173), that Bede draws upon in DT 2 (CCL
is Etym. 5.30.1-4,
from which, with the exception
of his final
Another possibility
123C:585).
in the chapter could have been derived. The same cannot be said of
thought, all the material
DNR.

Isidore's
sabbati

Bede's

rediret ad lucem."

"Domino
is the following:
thought, however,
surgente vespers
e tenebris
sabbati ut homo de luce lapsus in tenebras deinceps
autem sabbati, quae lucescit in
is from Matt. 28:1: "Vespere
quotation
final

in primam

lucescebat

The

et altera Maria,
videre sepulchrum."
The inspiration,
Magdalene,
or allegorical
the mystical
of
may have come from Isidore, who discusses
meaning
the day at several points in his long chapter. See, for example, DNR
1.3 (Fontaine
173-75),
that the Chaldaeans
calculated
the beginning of the day from the rising
where, after explaining
of the sun, the Egyptians
from the fall of night, and the Romans
from midnight,
he states:
prima

sabbati,

venit Maria

however,

"Dies in principio operum Dei a lumine habebat exordium, ad significandum

nunc autem a tenebris ad lucem, ut non dies obscuretur
in noctem, sed nox
sicut scriptum est de tenebris lumen clarescere
[2 Cor. 4:6], quia a delictorum

hominis
lucescat

lapsum;
in diem,

tenebris

liberatus

homo

ad lucem fidei scientiaeque

pervenit."
use of DNR
Bede's
3 (De hebd?mada)
(Fontaine

also requires some comment. At

183-85)
Jones cites Etym. 5.32 and 5.30 as Bede's
chief sources, which
is
123C:586),
(CCL
he also uses Isidore's DNR
3. Bede points out, for example,
that the
clearly correct. However,
Romans
named the days of the week after the planets, believing
that they were influenced by
the latter: "His ?ornen gentilitas a planetis
indidit, habere se credens a Sole spiritum, a Luna

DT

a Marte
a Mercurio
a Venere
sanguinem,
Ingenium et linguam, a love temperantiam,
a Saturno
source is clearly
tarditatem"
The principal
(DT 4, CCL
123C:586).
voluptatem,
"Proinde autem ex his septem stellis nomina dierum gentiles dederunt, eo quod
Etym. 5.30.8:
eosdem
dicentes habere a Sole spiritum, a Luna corpus, a
per
aliquid sibi effici existimarent,
aMarte
Mercurio
sanguinem, a love temperantiam,
ingenium et linguam, a Venere voluptatem,
corpus,

a Saturno

humorem."

"Proinde

autem

What he says about Saturn, however, points toDNR

3.4 (Fontaine
185):
gentiles ex his septem stellis nomina dierum dederunt, eo quod per eosdem
sibi effici extimarent, dicentes habere ex aere ignem, ex sole spiritum, ex luna corpus,

aliquid
ex Mercurio

ex Venere
ex Marte
fervorem, ex love tem
linguam et sapientiam,
voluptatem,
perantiam, ex Saturno tarditatem."
35
ex sole adverso nubibusque
123A:220-21:
"Arcus in aere quadricolor
Bede DNR 31, CCL
formatur, dum radius solis inmissus cavae nubi, repulsa acie in solem refringitur, instar cerat

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

86

TRADITIO

vagae

Easque

diei

probat
vagique

a sole mutuantes

lumen

Stellae
mundo

cum mundo

vert? utpote

his quae planetae,

exceptis
ferri dicuntur,
nec umquam
adventu
caelo
celari
decidere,
yi?eamus

Quamvis
deliquium.
lumen sideris
imitari,

trucibus

uno

loco fixae, et non stante

vocantur.
id est errantes,

fulgor plenilunii
ex aethere
lapsos portad
igniculos
ventis.36
cito eoonentibus

et solis
ventis,

Although the relevance of the solar eclipse is obvious enough, one ismore than
a little puzzled by the reference to the fullmoon. How does its brightness prove
that the stars remain in the heavens even during the day? The answer is that it
doesn't. However, the reason why Bede should mention it in this context becomes
clear when the cognate passage of Isidore's De natura rerum is consulted. Bede
obviously had it inmind. Isidore explains:
Stellas
de

oriente,
sub eius
videatur.

abscedere,

nec

eas umquam

obscurantur

sole

omnes
stellarum
sui signa praemiserit,
ignes
sideris splendor
ita ut praeter solis ignem nullius
luminis fulgore evanescunt,
eo quod
cunctis
solus appareat
obscuratis
etiam et sol appellatus,
Hinc

non cadunt.

Nec

sideribus.
pleraque

lumen, sed a sole inluminari dicuntur,

proprium
enim sidera
sole celari. Omnia
sed veniente

non habere

caelo

astra

Nam

mirum
non

quod,
deliquium,
astra videantur.37

hoc

luceant.
quando

dum

de
Esse

sol ortus

sole,

cum

autem

sol obiecto

etiam

etiam

orbe

plena
per diem

lunae

et

Stellas

tota nocte

285:

fulgente
solis
probat
in caelo
clariora

in caelo

fuerit obscuratus,

Whether Bede was assuming his reader's knowledge

31.1, Fontaine
imaginem anuli reddentis." Cf. Isidore DNR
enim sol in nubibus
formatur. Dum
ine solis hoc modo

luna

of this text, or whether

"Arcus

rarescentibus

enim

in aere ex imag
refulserit

ex adverso

suos directa linea humori nubilo transfundens

inpresserit, fit repercussio
splendoris
radiosque
eius in nubibus ex quibus fulgor emicans arcus speciem format. Sicut enim inpressa cera anuli
imaginem exprimit, sic nubes e contra ex rotunditate solis figur?m sumentes orbem efficiunt
et arcus

effigiem fingunt."
123A:201-202:
36Bede DNR
11, CCL

"The stars borrow their light from the sun, and with
stars that are called
of the wandering
the exception
they are said to be fixed in place
'planets',
and to revolve with the cosmos, rather than being unfixed, and set inmotion while the cosmos
at the break of day, nor do they ever fall from
itself is unmoved. They are [simply] concealed

as both the brightness of a full moon

and an eclipse of the sun prove. We may,
the heavens,
see
from
the ether imitate the light of wandering
of
fire
that
have
fallen
however,
particles
stars, being driven along by the sudden outbreak of strong winds." My translation.

24 A, Fontaine 261: "The stars are said not to have their own light, but to be
sun.
Nor do they ever drop from the heavens, but rather are hidden from view
the
by
by the arriving sun. All the stars are dimmed at the rising of the sun; they do not fall. For when
the sun sends forth the tokens of its rise, all the fires of the stars die away in the brightness of
37Isidore DNR

illumined

of no star can be seen. This is

its light, so that, other than the fire of the sun, the brilliance
why it is called the sun (sol): it alone (solus) appears, all the other stars having been concealed.
is full, and
It is not surprising that the sun should have this effect, since even when the moon
stars are invisible. An eclipse of the sun proves
shining throughout the night, a great many
For when the sun is concealed
that even during the day there are stars in the heavens.
by the
interposing disk of the moon, the brighter stars in the heavens become visible." My translation.
22 A and
at this juncture are DNR
is dependent
of Isidore on which Bede
The other passages
25.1 (Fontaine 255, 263).

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

87

he was

simply compressing his argument too much, by any reasonable standard

his use of Isidore's De natura rerum was considerable. As Di Pilla points out,
he was

not always discriminating in his choices either. Along with sounder

passages he included some of Isidore's impr?cisions as well, his conflation of
celestial and terrestrial circuii, for example.38 She also argues that, at points,

even favor Isidore over Pliny.39 Whereas Pliny credits the fixed
stars with their own innate source of light, says Di Pilla, Bede follows Isidore
inmaintaining that, like themoon and the planets, they have no source of light
other than what is received from the sun. Di Pilla's summary assessment does

Bede would

not do full justice to a situation that is simply unclear.40 Although Bede's fol
lowing of Isidore to the exclusion of Pliny on a strictly scientific matter is

doubtful, it is noteworthy that he rarely corrects Isidore. Even more rarely, in

rerum

natura

De

either

or De

temporibus,

is the correction

serious

one.41

In the light of these conclusions, how likely is it thatBede spent a significant

portion of the latter days of his life preparing a book of corrections to the same

38Di Pilla,

140. According
(n. 15 above),
"Cosmologia"
there are five celestial
circuii (Isidore also speaks
and consequently
the habitability, of five corresponding

endorses,
mate,

the issue, however,

and Bede

follows

by failing to distinguish
clearly between
him. Cf. Isidore DNR
10.1, Fontaine
209;

sunt, quarum distinctionibus

partes
quaedam
existunt. Quae
frigoris aut caloris inhabitabiles

quinqu?
manitate

to the basic

doctrine

that Bede

of zonae)
that determine
the cli
circuii on earth. Isidore confuses
the celestial

and

and Etym. 3.44.1:

temperie sua incoluntur,
ideo zonae

vel circuii

the terrestrial,
"Zonae
quaedam

caeli
in

appellantur."

that Bede
123A:199:
9, CCL
"Quinqu?
adopts in DNR
quorum distinctionibus
quaedam
partes temperie sua incoluntur,
inmanitate frigoris aut caloris inhabitabiles
existunt."
quaedam
. 15 above),
141.
39Di Pilla, "Cosmologia"
(
40Isidore's position seems fairly certain. See Etym. 3.61; and DNR 24.1, Fontaine 261: "Stel
. . ." In the latter passage
las non habere proprium
he
lumen, sed a sole inluminari dicuntur
goes on to refer to the ignes stellarum, but his usage could be taken to be metaphorical.
Pliny's
It is the wording
circuits mundus

of the Etymologies

dividitur,

are not as clear. The

to which Di Pilla refers (Nat. Hist. 2.6.29, Loeb

passage
1:188)
however, Pliny de
lamps. Elsewhere,
falling stars, which Pliny likens to heavenly
te
and states: "hie lucem rebus ministrai
scribes the sun as mundi
totius animus,
aufertque
sideribus fe
inlustrat ... hie suum lumen ceteris quoque
nebras, hic reliqua sidera occult?t
nerat" (Nat. Hist. 2A A3, Loeb
1:178). Since the context is established with a reference to the
seven planets ?
errantia" ?
that
possibly he means
"septem sidera quae ab incessu vocamus
sun.
one
at
at
from
his
receive
their
the
For
and
Bede,
alone,
least,
part,
they,
light
point
they
views

concerns

123A:201-02:
"Stellae
lumen a sole
11, CCL
?
he refers to the fire by which
the stars shine
"igne
?
123A:194)
quo stellae lucent" (DNR 3, CCL
following Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2.4.10. Here Pliny
the four elements, describing fire as the highest: "igneum summum, inde tot stellarum
discusses

seems clearly to endorse

. . ." Elsewhere,
mutuantes.

Isidore.

See DNR

however,

illos conlucentium
oculos"
(Loeb
1:176).
41
where Bede corrects Isidore on the colors
See, for example, DNR 31 (CCL
123A:220-21),
of the rainbow, or DT 8 (CCL
where he provides a more precise definition of the
123C:591),
length of the solar year. The matter is discussed more thoroughly inmy "Bede and the Isidorian
(to appear inMediaeval
Studies), which also explores criticism
Legacy"
on the Acts of the Apostles
Retractatio
and in his De
temporum ratione.

of Isidore

in Bede's

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

88

TRADITIO

natura rerumi Possibly, over the years, his opinion of Isidore's work had
become more negative. There is not much evidence, however, that thatwas the

De

case.

if Isidore's

Moreover,

De

rerum

natura

was

now

defective

enough

to justify

compiling a list of its errors, so, presumably, was Bede's own early work, and
there is no indication thathe ever contemplated writing a second set of retractions
to complement those on theActs of the Apostles. Both De temporibus and De

natura rerum remained forBede what they had been from the outset: satisfactory,
although essentially limited, introductions to their subjects. There is also, one
suspects, something amiss with the image of Bede that such an interpretation of

remarks entails. Ray speaks of Bede's

"angry words," and of his
sunk
into "apparent bitterness."
about
Isidore
having
"long-standing skepticism"
Is this the portrait of sanctity thatCuthbert would have wished to leave us? Is it

Cuthbert's

"dictated cheerfully" to his disciples,

finishing his days in "great holiness and peace"?42 It seems unlikely. In Ray's
view, however, "Cuthbert writes as ifBede's deathbed broadside against Isidore
consistent with Cuthbert's claim thatBede

was part of the virtue that caused his teacher to die in the beauty of holiness."43
Both Meyvaert and Ray have argued that the specific language Cuthbert em
?
?
exceptiones quasdam
implies
ploys to describe Bede's work on Isidore

that Bede was preparing corrections of some kind.44 The point certainly isn't
The primary meaning of exceptio, as given in Lewis and Short, is

obvious.

limitation."

restriction,

"exception,

it means

to Glare,

According

"exception,

Latinae

lists exemptio and

Linguae
qualification,
exclusio as equivalents.45 Since it appears to denote things that are to be left out
in some sense, conceivably exceptiones quasdam could refer to offending pas
reservation." The Thesaurus

text that should be omitted. However, the standard guides

no
authority for such a reading, and even less for taking the words to
provide
mean a set of corrections of Isidore's errors. Of the possible meanings of exceptio/
exceptiones mentioned by Du Cange, the only one thatmakes any sense in the
in Isidore's

sages

context

is excerptiones,

or "extracts",

"excerpts"

which

presumably

is what

Col

grave had in mind when he took exceptiones quasdam to mean "a selection"
from Isidore.46 If corrections were at issue, however, a much likelier possibility
than corrections to Isidore himself would be corrections of the scribal errors and
other, deliberate changes that had corrupted his text.
Michael Lapidge has recently edited an epitome of Isidore's Etymologies pre

42Epistola, Colgrave
Vera
43Ray, "Bede's
44Meyvaert,

"Bede

and Mynors,
583, 587.
Lex Hist?ri??"
16-17.
( . 1 above),
the Scholar"
59; Ray, "Bede's
( . 1 above),

16-17.
above),
45ThLL 5. 2: cols.

1223-25;

633-34.
46
Du

Cf.

don,

Cange

1986),

3:343.

830, which

P. G. W.

Glare,

the Dictionary
cites

the Epistola

Vera

Oxford Latin Dictionary,

ofMedieval
Cuthberti

Lex Hist?ri??"
fase. 3 (Oxford,

. 1

1971),

Latin from British Sources,

fase. 3 (Lon
as the first of several examples.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

89

served in a continental manuscript that can be dated ca. 800. This text, apparently
entitled De diversis rebus, reproduces a number of Insular abbreviations that
the scribe some difficulty, as well as eight Old English glosses whose
form suggests a date of ca. 700. Lapidge argues that the original was produced
either at Canterbury or at some English center in contact with Canterbury, and
at some time between ca. 700, when the glosses were written, and ca. 800, when
the epitome was copied in northern France. What makes itparticularly interesting
caused

for our purposes is the carelessness evident throughout thework, and the frequent
errors to which it gave rise. Lapidge draws the appropriate conclusion: "Once
such misinformation got into circulation, itwould be very difficult to eradicate.
The errors ... are readily apparent as long as the epitome is read side-by-side

with Isidore's Etymologiae. But once the two became separated, the early me
dieval user would have had very few means of controlling the errors, for he had
no Pauly-Wissowa
or Thesaurus Linguae Latinae against which to check sus
entries."47

picious

the great interest in Isidorian materials produced similar outrages

natura rerum is unknown. We do know, however, that the text
his
De
against
of theDe natura rerum that circulated inNorthumbria inBede's time and shortly
Whether

subject to considerable uncertainty. Fontaine argues that itwas

in Northumbrian circles in the first half of the eighth century that the third

thereafterwas

recension, the one that introduced chapter 44, made its appearance.48 Others have
argued that Isidore's works, including the De natura rerum, were known in
Ireland well before the end of the seventh century.49 The third recension, there

fore, could have been of Irish provenance, and of even earlier date than Fontaine
supposed.50 If so, the likelihood is only increased that Bede was aware of the
47
Michael

"An Isidorian Epitome

from Early Anglo-Saxon
Romano
England,"
Lapidge,
10 (1988-89):
443-83,
esp. 457.
79.
48Fontaine, Trait? de la nature ( . 1 above),
.
4 (Berlin,
and the Irish," Studia Patristica
49Cf. J.
"The
East,
Spain
Visigothic
Hillgarth,
in the Seventh Century," Peritia
3 (1984):
and Spain
1-16,
idem, "Ireland
1961): 442-56;

barbarica

and the Irish (London,

is reprinted in Visigothic
1985); and M. W.
Spain, Byzantium
in Visigothic Spain: New
Irish Acquaintance
with Isidore of Seville,"
"On the Earliest
For a dissenting
ed. Edward
James (Oxford,
view, see Marina
1980), 243-50.
Approaches,
which

Herren,

Celtic Studies
Cambridge Medieval
Smyth, "Isidore of Seville and Early Irish Cosmography,"
14 (Winter, 1987): 69-102.
From an analysis of the cosmographical
views of Irish scholars,
before
Smyth argues that the relevant portions of Isidore's works could not have been available
in Seventh-Century
Hiberno
century. Cf. idem, "The Physical World
5 (1986):
201-34,
esp. 206, 213.
in
"Die europ?ische
der Werke
Isidors von Sevilla,"
50Cf. Bernhard Bischoff,
Verbreitung
.
at 332-34;
J.
ed. M. C. D?az y D?az
Isidoriana,
(Leon, 1961), 317-44
Hillgarth, "Visigothic
Ireland," Proceedings
(Section C, No.
of the Royal Irish Academy
Spain and Early Christian
the end of the seventh

Latin

Texts,"

Peritia

vol. 1 (Toronto,
Famina,
167-94, esp. 188; and M. W. Herren, Hisperica
1974),
6) 62 (1962):
the exception
134, where Herren comments on the word tollus, of Old Irish derivation. With
texts.
of Isidore DNR 44.5, it occurs only in Hiberno-Latin

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

90

TRADITIO

uncertainties that had been introduced into the text, and worried about the im
plications for his students. Conceivably he desired to leave them a corrected
version. Given Isidore's very great popularity, Bede knew he would continue
to be read, his own De
seen,

his

own

De

natura rerum notwithstanding. Indeed, as we have just

rerum

natura

may

have

presupposed

it.

Rather

than exceptiones, however, there is strong manuscript evidence that

excerptiones was the reading of the archetype of the Epistola Cuthberti.51 It
reinforces what there is good reason for believing on other grounds: thatCuthbert

was not referring to corrections of any kind, but to extracts from Isidore's treatise.
Corrections of the sort envisaged byMeyvaert and Ray would have been without
precedent in Bede's known work. But twice already Bede had produced collec
tions of selected passages, once from theworks of Gregory theGreat, and once
from St. Augustine.52 Cr?pin suggests that in this case the purpose of the extracts

may have been to combat popular superstition. "Nolo ut pueri mei mendacium
legant, et in hoc post meum obitum sine fructu laborent," Bede is reported to
have said. "I cannot have my children reading a lie, and losing their labour on
this after I am gone."53 On Cr?pin's reading, the "lie" thatBede wished to combat

was neither Isidore's

treatise itself nor a defective

textual tradition of it, but

rather "some Old English astronomical lore."54Fontaine maintains that themajor
purpose of Isidore's treatise had been to combat popular superstition of precisely
this sort, superstition that remained a significant part of the spiritual life of the
seventh century despite apparent Christianization.55 Conceivably, Bede was in
terested in challenging
51
See Dobbie, Manuscripts
in both Insular
exceptiones,

the same demons.

the Hague MS gives

Although
the reading in the hyparchetype was
of the bifides tradition are divided on the

120-22 and
(n. 6 above),
and Continental
Versions

In the latter case the two branches

excerptiones.
issue. However,
the shorter and more authoritative

121-23.

branch gives excerptiones

(the St. Gall MS
the exception
of one manuscript
of the six in the Symeon Group, and
excertiones). With
three manuscripts
of eight in the Burney Group
the Insular
(one of which has excerptionis),
Cf. Howlett,
"Biblical
136.
manuscripts
uniformly endorse excerptiones.
Style" (n. 10 above),
52See book 6 of his commentary on the Canticle
of Canticles,
CCL
and his
119B:359-75;
has

ex opusculis
to be published
sancii Augustini
in epistulas Pauli Apostoli,
in CCL
12IB.
53Cuthbert Epistola,
and Mynors,
582-83.
Translation
revised.
Colgrave
54
A. Cr?pin,
"Bede and the Vernacular,"
in Famulus
Christi
170-92 at 190n.
( . 1 above),
and Culture
also speaks of a collection
of extracts,
Rich?, Education
390-91,
(n. 2 above),
but extracts that represented what was salvageable
in Isidore's work. It was "a clear expression
Collectio

criticism of the Sevillian

for what Bede
thought was an abuse of the allegorical
and for digressions
that were still too close to the cosmic
system of the pagans."
Trait? de la nature ( . 1 above), 4
55Fontaine, Isidore de S?ville
( . 29 above), 2:455-57;

of Bede's
genre

de S?ville et l'astrologie,"
Revue des ?tudes latines 31 (1953): 271-300,
where
towards a distinction between astronomia
and astrologia
argues that Isidore worked
one. Although
similar to our modern
his own thought was not absolutely
devoid of it, Isidore
as superstition. On
see M. Lejbowicz,
the basic distinction,
however,
regarded
astrology
et son univers au
et pratique
in L'homme
"Th?orie
chez Isidore de S?ville,"
astronomiques

6. Cf.

"Isidore

Fontaine

moyen

?ge

(Louvain-la-neuve,

1986),

2:622-30.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

91

for this specific reason would be likelier were there

any indication that Bede was troubled by pagan survivals, or worried by a
possible revival of pagan belief or practice. The available evidence suggests that
such was not the case. Whereas Isidore makes a point of underlining the folly
A collection assembled

of heathen superstition, Bede does not.56Whatever its purpose, however, itwas

undoubtedly a collection of extracts that Bede was working on. The point is
confirmed ifA. K. Brown

is correct in arguing that Cuthbert's Latin clearly

that
the
implies
exceptiones (or excerptiones) from Isidore were being translated.
The central text needs to be examined once again:
In istis autem
cotidie
sancii

diebus

duo opuscula
multum memoria
ab eo et cantu Psalmorum,
facer?

accepimus
Iohannis usque

in nostram

linguam

ad eum

in quo

locum

ad utilitatem

ecclesiae

dicitur
Dei

lectionibus
quas
exceptis
id est a capite evangelii
'
haec quid sunt inter tantos?'

digna,

studuit,

"Sed

convertit,

et de libris Rotarum

ut pueri mei
dicens
"Nolo
episcopi
exceptiones
quasdam,
hoc post meum
obitum
sine fructu laborent."57

mendacium

Ysidori

legant,

et in

Although many of Cuthbert's translators would not agree, following Brown

would argue that a translation along the following lines is required:
In those days,
of the Psalter,

besides

the lessons

there were

two

that we

received

from him daily and his chanting

of record that he strove to
very worthy
of God,
he translated
into our language
the
it is said: "But what
up to the place where

small works

For the benefit of the church

complete.
of St. John from the beginning
Gospel
are these among so many?"
He also translated
Liber
vain

"I cannot
saying:
this after I am gone."58

Rotarum,
on

have

my

some
children

selections

from Bishop
Isidore's
a lie, and
in
laboring

reading

Two aspects of the Latin text require comment. First, it seems safe to assume
that Bede intended to translate more of St. John's Gospel than he did.59 At the
where Bede points out that the Romans
named
56See, for example, DT 4 (CCL
123C:586),
the days of the week after the planets, believing
that they were
influenced by the latter. He
draws on both DNR
3.4 (Fontaine
but does not find it necessary
to
185) and Etym. 5.30.8,
the thought with which
in each case:
Isidore closes
"Talis quippe
extitit gentilium
stultitia, qui sibi finxerunt tarn ridiculosa
figmenta."
57Cuthbert Epistola,
and Mynors,
582.
Colgrave
to the translation, see Howlett,
58For a similar approach
"Biblical
140.
Style" (n. 10 above),
Cf. Giles, Miscellaneous
Works
and Plummer, Opera Hist?rica
Llxxxi;
(n. 5 above),
( .5
repeat

l:lxxv-lxxvi.
above),
was only the Gospel
said of A. M. Sellar,

Colgrave
Bede was

and Mynors,
translating,
Ecclesiastical

whose

translation

not Isidore.

See

is here

above,

revised,
at n. 4. The

imply that it
same can be

in Bede's
(London,
History
of the English People
1917),
in Baedae
Loeb Classical
xlii; J. E. King,
Opera Hist?rica,
1930), xxxi; and
Library (London,
D. H. Farmer, in Bede: Ecclesiastical
rev. ed. (Harmondsworth,
History of the English People,
1990), 358-59.
59
to the Insular Version,
he translated the entire thing. See Dobbie, Manuscripts
According
. . . facer? studebat,
"In istis autem diebus duo opuscula
121-23:
(n. 6 above),
evang?lium
vero sancti Iohannis
in nostram linguam ad utilitatem ecclesie
convertit, et de libris rotarum
Ysidori
above),

. . ."
to Howlett,
episcopi
excerptiones
quasdam
According
145, he probably got up to John 6:70, "the first great climax

"Biblical
(n.
Style"
of St. John's Gospel."

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

10

92

TRADITIO

very least he would have hoped to cover a coherent portion of it. Stopping at
John 6:9, in themiddle of the story of the feeding of the five thousand, would

not have been part of the design.60 Secondly, as Brown points out, the Latin
implies a translation of both St. John and Isidore. Presumably, therefore, the
"lie" thathad to be refutedwas either an inept effort to render Isidore intoAnglo
Saxon,61 or else a set of other misconceptions of some kind that a translation of
help counter. Cuthbert introduces two parallel

Isidore would

words:

"duo

. . . facer?

opuscula

studuit."

The

key

clause

clauses with the

is

the

second

one,

which reads: "et de libris Rotarum Ysidori episcopi exceptiones quasdam." As

it stands, it lacks a predicate, and has to be read as if governed by the predicate
in the preceding parallel clause: "id est a capite evangelii . . . convertit." It is
no solution to suggest that Cuthbert would have us reach outside the parallel
clauses and understand exceptiones quasdam to be governed by facer? studuit.
Such an argument is tantamount to accusing him of having constructed "a syn
tactic

monstrosity."62

Had Cuthbert not intended us to understand thatBede

translated the selections

from Isidore, he would have supplied fecit, or the logical equivalent, in the
second parallel clause. This would have made the distinction between Bede's
treatment of St. John and his handling of Isidore clear. He translated portions
of the Gospel, but he merely compiled exceptiones quasdam from the Liber
rotarum. Alternatively, he could have supplied a relative pronoun at the appro

priate juncture in the first parallel clause. Writing quod after inter tantos would
have created a subordinate clause ?
"quod in nostram linguam ad utilitatem
ecclesiae Dei convertit"?
referring exclusively to theGospel. This would have
structure
the
of
the
entire passage, leaving the reader to understand that
changed
the two works that Bede

strove to complete were (a) some selections from the

Gospel, which, for the benefit of the Church of God, he translated intoAnglo
Saxon,

and

(b)

some

extracts

from

Isidore's

De

natura

rerum.

However,

neither

option is endorsed by the critical text, nor is there any trace in either Dobbie's
apparatus or the Hague manuscript that the missing verb or relative pronoun
cf. Ross, "A Connection"
(n. 6 above), 491-92, who reports Stanley's
suggestion
at John 6:9 because
of some special
stopped
intentionally
spiritual significance
attached to the verse. See also Ute Schwab,
"Air- fter: Das Memento Mori Bedas
als christ
liche Kontrafaktur,
eine philologische
in Studi di letteratura religiosa
tedesca
Interpretation,"
60However,

that Bede

in memoria
the historical
It points

di Sergio Lupi ([Florence],

at 40-53, who suggests
1972), 5-134
that, whatever
truth on the matter may be, Cuthbert's
reference to John 6:9 was quite deliberate.

to a veiled

numerical

number

five, which

which precedes
it by just a few
Death-Song,
in
the
of
the
with 5 loaves
5,000
figures prominently
feeding
and 2 fishes, is equally
in the Death-Song,
whose
5 lines contain (5x5
=) 25
conspicuous
words.
in the poem as well.
Indeed, the hidden allegory extends to the number of syllables
"
61
See Fontaine, Trait? de la nature ( . 1 above), 79, who translates as follows:
Je ne veux
lines. The

pas que mes

62Brown,

allegory

in Bede's

fils lisent un text mensonger,

Points"
(
"English Compass

et qu'ils y perdent
. 9 above), 232.

leur temps apr?s ma mort."

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

BEDE

AND

ISIDORE

93

may have fallen out.63 As it stands, therefore, Cuthbert's Latin requires more
than the compiling of exceptiones. It implies that Bede translated them into
Anglo-Saxon, and at the same time italso ensures that the exceptiones in question
indeed extracts and not corrections. Translating a set of corrections to a
Latin textmakes no sense whatever unless the basic text is translated as well,

were

and Cuthbert's
or

anyone

else

letter provides us with no basis for supposing that either Bede

ever

undertook

that

larger

task.

The principal objection to this interpretation has been voiced by Meyvaert:

"Cuthbert distinguishes between the translation of John's gospel, which was

done for the good of the Church, and the work on Isidore, which was intended
forBede's students (among whom Cuthbert includes himself), all of whom knew

Latin."64 Here, everything turns on the precise meaning to be given to pueri.

Rather than Bede's pupils in the strict sense, a larger clerical audience could

possibly have been intended. In his letter to Bishop Ecgbert, Bede refers to
clerici and monachi who could not read Latin, and he goes on to say that for
the benefit of unlettered priests he has translated both the Apostles' Creed and
Prayer into the vernacular.65 Perhaps itwas such monks and clerics,
or even his "children" in a broader sense, the equivalent of the church at large,
to whom Bede intended to direct his translations of St. John and of Isidore. If
the Lord's

so, we

an

have

answer

that testifies to Bede's

to the meaning

text.

of Cuthbert's

continuing respect of Isidore's De

It is also

an

answer

natura rerum, not his

embittered hostility.
Queen's

University

Postscript

I am grateful to Paul Meyvaert, who identified himself as one of the readers

of this paper and offered several valuable comments. He has asked me to note
here that he has now revised his earlier opinion, and would no longer maintain
thatBede was hostile towards Isidore. Dr. Meyvaert points out that the reading
excerptiones in Cuthbert's text can be confirmed by Bede's homily on Matthew
21 for Palm Sunday. Here Bede himself uses the verb excerpo in a similar way,

63
See
above),

Dobbie,

Manuscripts

(n. 6 above),

120-23;

and Ker,

"Hague

Manuscript"

(n.

10

42.

59.
the Scholar"
(n. 1 above),
64Meyvaert, "Bede
1:409:
ad Ecgbertum
5, in Plummer, Opera Hist?rica
( . 5 above),
episcopum
65Epistola
. . .
sunt
Latinae
". . . de clericis
sive monachis,
linguae expertes.
Propter quod et ipse
qui
orationem
idiotis haec utraque, et symbolum videlicet, et dominicam
multis saepe sacerdotibus
in linguam Anglorum
not written.

translatam

optuli."

The

saepe would

suggest

that these translations were

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC

94

TRADITIO

i.e. to describe themaking of excerpts from known authorities in order to prevent

the less learned from falling into error. Cuthbert's text is clearly an echo of what
his master had originally said. See Horn. 2.3 (CCL 122:203-04), where Bede
comments on the branches that were cut and spread on the road for Christ's
entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:8):
Rami

arborum

credendi
fecerunt
tantis

dicta

sive operandi
ramos
pandit

conplanet
quia
Christi
corda ne in via

sunt patrum
quid

prophetae
quid
de arboribus

profecto
sententias
veritatis

Et

praecedentium.

de

apostoli
caedit

in exemplum
recte
seu
sancti dixerunt

iter asini dominum

por
quibus
libris excerpit
per quas
simplicium

sanctorum

errent

quisqu?s
ceteri

quid

aedificet.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:19 UTC