page_title: Isidore of Seville
hierarchical_section_title: Isidore of Seville
caption_attribution_description: bishop, a 7th century Doctor of the Church, with a book, common iconographical object for a doctor
context_page_description: Isidore of Seville, was a scholar and, for over three decades, Archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the oft-quoted words of the 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of the ancient world."
  At a time of disintegration of classical culture, and aristocratic violence and illiteracy, he was involved in the conversion of the Arian Visigothic kings to Catholicism, both assisting his brother Leander of Seville, and continuing after his brother's death. He was influential in the inner circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo and Seville. The Visigothic legislation that resulted from these councils influenced the beginnings of representative government.
  His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an etymological encyclopedia which assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost.
context_section_description: Isidore of Seville (/ˈɪzɪdɔːr/; Latin: Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 –  4 April 636), was a scholar and, for over three decades, Archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the oft-quoted words of the 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of the ancient world."  
  At a time of disintegration of classical culture, and aristocratic violence and illiteracy, he was involved in the conversion of the Arian Visigothic kings to Catholicism, both assisting his brother Leander of Seville, and continuing after his brother's death. He was influential in the inner circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo and Seville. The Visigothic legislation that resulted from these councils influenced the beginnings of representative government.
  His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an etymological encyclopedia which assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost.
caption: St. Isidore of Seville (1655), depicted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.3.9600.17415", "Image DateTime": "2015:11:18 15:18:32", "Image ExifOffset": "2200", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}