Jun 30 2023 48 mins 5
The word “amicus” — meaning “friend” — comes from a derivation, as if it
were “animi custos”, or “guardian of the soul”. And this is well put! The term
for someone tormented by carnal desire is “amator turpitudinis”, a lover of
wickedness. But “friend”, “amicus”, is from the word “hamus”, a hook — in
other words, the chain of charity, since hooks hold on.
The Etymologies , by the seventh-century polymath and theologian Isidore
of Seville, is a massive medieval encyclopedia, with sections devoted to
topics from grammar to farming, mathematics to war. And throughout the book,
Isidore attempts to understand the world through etymology—that is, by poking
and prodding at words until they reveal their histories and the other words
that they’re made of. Chris and Suzanne revel in Isidore’s ear for the
materiality of language, as well as his encyclopedic impulse to gather and
organize everything.
Show Notes.
Isidore of Seville: The Etymologies.
[Bookshop.] [The text in
Latin.]
The only other book by Isidore available in English translation seems to be
On the Nature of Things.
Our episodes on the Hereford Mappa
Mundi, The
Aeneid, Beyond a
Boundary, Gertrude
Stein, and Georges
Perec.
Petrus Riga’s Aurora does not
seem to be available in English translation.
The Latin text of the opening quote:
> Amicus, per derivationem, quasi animi custos. Dictus autem proprie: amator
turpitudinis, quia amore torquetur libidinis: amicus ab hamo, id est, a catena
caritatis; unde et hami quod teneant.
Suzanne wrote about encyclopedism (and Moby-Dick, naturally) for LitHub.
The First Grammatical
Treatise.
Next: Nezami Ganjavi: Layla and Majnun.
[Bookshop.]
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