Isidore of Seville: parton saint of the Internet

4th April is the birthday of Saint Isidore of Seville, the proposed parton saint of the Internet.

Isidore's most important work was his encyclopedia, the Etymologiae. The work takes its title from the method he used in the transcription of his time's knowledge. The encyclopedia as a whole was a huge compilation in 448 chapters, devoted to transmitting a condensed epitome of the learning of antiquity. The depository of classical culture in Isidore's compendium was so highly regarded that in a great measure it superseded the use of the individual works of the classics themselves, and many were not recopied and are lost. The book not only was the most popular compendia in medieval libraries but was printed in at least 10 editions between 1470 and 1530, showing Isidore's continued popularity in the Renaissance. Until the 12th century brought translations from Arabic sources, Isidore transmitted what western Europeans remembered of the works of Aristotle and other Greeks, although he couldn't understand Greek further than single words. This work was much copied, particularly in the medieval bestiary.