Letter 5
To Braulio, most beloved brother and son in Christ,
The Etymologiae is finished — or at least I have stopped adding to it, which is not quite the same thing. I am sending it to you now, twenty books of it, in the care of the bearer of this letter. He is trustworthy, and I have wrapped the volumes carefully, but I ask you to check them on arrival and write to me if anything has been damaged in transit.
I want to say something clearly before you read it: this work is imperfect. There are passages where my sources were thin and I have guessed more than I should. There are definitions that I am not entirely confident in. The section on warfare and the section on ships both reflect the limits of what a Spanish bishop can know about such matters. If you find errors — and you will find errors — I ask you not to propagate them. Correct what you can. I am trusting you with this work in a way I have not trusted many others, precisely because I know you have the learning to distinguish my good judgments from my bad ones.
The dedication of the work is a matter I leave to you. You pushed me to complete it; it is fitting that your name be attached to it somehow.
May God protect you and keep you in his mercy.
Isidore, your unworthy father in Christ
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.