Isidore of Seville, Chronicon (2004). Introduction.

With St. Isidore of Seville (Isidorus Hispalensis, born ca. 560, d. 636 AD), the patristic age in the West comes to an end.  He became Archbishop of Seville in 600-601.  He was a very industrious author, and exercised an immense influence on medieval Europe.  His works are mainly compilations from earlier authors, but of great value because he was the last author still in touch with antiquity.  Many of his works, especially the exegetical ones, have never been printed.  More details of his works with a limited bibliography can be found in B. Altaner, Patrology, tr. H. Graef, Freiburg:Herder (1960) pp. 594-8.

In the same way, Isidore is the last Latin historian of the patristic period, producing two historical works.  His brief Chronicon or Chronicle of the World extends to 615 AD, and is given here.  The work appears in the Patrologia Latina 83: cols. 1017-1058.  There is also a critical text in Mommsen, Chronica Minora saec. IV-VII, 2 vols (Monumenta Germania Historia vols. 9 and 11) vol. 2 pp.391-488, and the text will be reedited in the near future for the Corpus Christianorum series.  His other work, the Historia Gothorum, a chronicle of the Visigoths to 625 with two short appendices on the Vandals and Suevians, can be found in the same sources.

This text is something of a departure for this series, in that it was translated recently from the PL text by Dr. Kenneth B. WOLF as a teaching aid for his students.  I came across it online one day, and felt it deserved to be more generally known.  To the best of my knowledge it is the only English translation.  Dr. Wolf has very kindly released this version into the public domain, so that it can appear here, but warns that this is only a first draft.  The master copy can be found at his site, at "http://www.history.pomona.edu/kbw/h100y/chronicon.htm", with revisions as they are made.

Roger PEARSE
6th February, 2004 

This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2004.  All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.

Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.