Uso y recepción de las Etymologiae de Isidoro

The reception of Isidore’s Etymologiae has mostly been studied in the context of editorial work, in order to differentiate textual recensions and find out their ways of diffusion. But also many individual manuscripts of different sorts have already been studied in different contexts. This article aims to summarise the results of these individual investigations, typifying the textual witnesses and trying to shed some light on individual readers’ habits when using Isidore’s encyclopedia. Excerpts were particularly important for the Carolingian reception. They can appear in different types of compendia, as introduction to other works or even as annexes to the complete work, reflecting thus individual interests and contexts of utilization. Epitomai concentrate on particular subjects, as do some manuscripts, in which the Etymologiae were partly or totally re-structured. The work’s rich lexicographic information was employed in different types of glossaries, from short ones that helped to understand a particular text, to the great work of re-arrangement in the Liber glossarum. These observations are based mostly on manuscripts dating from the 8th to the 11th ct., whereas the Late Medieval and Renaissance reception has only been very partially studied. The article ends with some considerations on the utilisation of the Etymologiae for teaching purposes and as a real “quarry” for authors who cultivated an obscure style