Letter 7

From: Braulio of Zaragoza, bishop To: Isidore of Seville, bishop and scholar Date: ~635 AD Context: After careful reading, Braulio writes to Isidore with specific scholarly questions and requests for corrections on several points in the Etymologiae. To my most learned Lord and teacher Isidore, with all reverence, I have now read the Etymologiae more carefully — not three days of devouring it, but months of sitting with it, checking references, testing definitions, going back to the sources where I have them. It is even better than my first impression, and my first impression was already that it was remarkable. But you told me to find the errors, and I have found some, so I am writing to raise them with you. I ask you to take this in the spirit it is intended — as the work of someone who cares about the text deeply enough to want it to be right. In Book III, on mathematics, the definition of the perfect number seems to me to conflate two different ancient discussions. I have Nicomachus here and I believe your source may have been a less careful intermediary. In Book XI, on man, the passage on the formation of the fetus cites a view I cannot find in Galen; it reads more like Soranus but imprecisely. And in Book XV, on buildings and fields, several of the measurements you give for Roman engineering structures appear to come from a late and not entirely reliable summary rather than from the original authors. None of these are large errors. But they are the kind that a hostile reader will find and use against the whole work. If you have time to look at them, I would be grateful. Your attentive and respectful student, Braulio