Geographical Descriptions of Spain in Latin Medieval Encyclopaedias: From Isidore of Seville to Vincent of Beauvais (VII-XIII c.)

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of reception of the description of Spain contained in the Etymologies by Isidore of Seville in Latin medieval encyclopaedias, on the background of the development of the medieval encyclopaedic trend. The etymological-geographical description of his homeland was placed by Isidore in book 14 of his work (14, 4, 28-30). This portrayal was “supplemented” in other places in the Etymologies, among other things, with an etymological-ethnographical aspect (9, 2, 109-114). When presenting Spain, Isidore based his work on works from the Antiquity. He showed mainly a Roman Spain, with few references to the contemporary situation of the country under Gothic rule. In later encyclopaedias, in which geographical sections are present, Isidore’s description of Spain is used to a varied extent. It was either repeated (Raban Maur, Vincent of Beauvais), and shortened, with minor modifications (Honorius Augustodunensis), or combined with information found in, for example, the work of Orosius (Historiae: Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII). In the latter case, the combined whole was still updated (with certain selected facts concerning contemporary Spain). Such descriptions were placed in the works of Gervase of Tilbury and Bartholomeus Anglicus. It should be noted that Gervase of Tilbury added to the presentation of Spain a fragment illustrating its division into archbishoprics and bishoprics. A comparison of medieval encyclopaedic descriptions of Spain written before the middle of the XIIIth century – that is, before the encyclopaedia Speculum maius was compiled, it can be claimed that each of them drew on the description placed in book 14 of the Etymologies; in Speculum maius, the greatest encyclopaedia of the Middle Ages, in its part entitled Speculum historiale, this description was repeated word for word, as mentioned above. It may said, that despite new descriptions of Spain (formulated in the first half of the XIIIth c. by Gervase of Tilbury and Bartholomeus Anglicus), the portrayal drawn by Isidore of Seville maintained its “validity”, as it were. Taking into account the outstanding role of medieval encyclopaedic works in the dissemination of knowledge in this epoch, it may also be claimed that the Spain of that time was perceived (at least till the middle of the XIIIth century) “through the eyes of Isidore” (this fact has its reflection in the cartography of the time). It remains to be seen how this picture changed (and if it changed for good) in the late Middle Ages.