Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
BY HARRY L. LEVY
'L. Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York: 1923-41), I, 629.
2 Cf. M. Conrat, Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des Romischen Rechts im Friiheren Mittelal
(Leipzig: 1891), i, 151; E. Brehaut, An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages (New York: 1912), p. 165.
Cf. also B. iiubler, 'Isidorusstudien,' Hermes, xxv (1890), 519.
3 Cf. M. Conrat, Breviarium Alaricianum. . . in Systematischer Darstellung (Leipzig: 1903), p.
560.
4 Cf. Conrat (1903), p. 558. This quotation is taken from the interpretatio which accompanies the
constitution both in the Breviary and in the Code.
5 The language of Cod. Theod., ix, 16, 4: ' . . . magi et ceteri, quos maleficos ... vulgus appel-
lat . . . ' is paralleled by Lactantius, Divin. Inst., ii, 16, 4: ' . . . magi et ii quos vere maleficos vulgus
appellat . . . ,' and by Augustine, De Civ. Dei, x, 9: ' . . . damnabiles, quos et maleficos vulgus appellat
...... The contexts of the two passages last cited, however, do not contain either of the phrases
which are common to Isidore, the Breviary, and the Code: ' ... ob facinorum magnitudinem. ..,'
and ... mentes hominum turbant ....'
conjecture that an excerpt from the constitution last cited appeared in a copy of
the Breviary now lost, and was there found by Isidore.6
Whatever may be the case as regards Item (c), I suggest that the correspond-
ence between Items (a) and (A) and that between Items (b) and (B) demonstrate
that Isidore, in compiling our present passage, paraphrased the Breviarium
Alaricianum.7 If that is so, the phrase 'ob facinorum magnitudinem,' whether
intended as an etymology or not,8 cannot validly be classified as an example of
Isidore's undoubted fondness for derivation.
A similar remark may be made about the characterization of 'credulous' which
Thorndike9 applies to Isidore's entire definition of magic. A comparison between
that definition and pertinent statutes'0 will show that the credulity should rather
be imputed to the fourth-century legislator," or generally to the Romans of that
century, whose culture-patterns are presumably reflected in their laws. By the
time in which Isidore wrote, the laws in question had been on the statute-books
for centuries. I suggest that the Bishop of Seville should not be taxed with
credulousness in this instance, since he apparently based his definition of magic
largely upon long-accepted formulations of Roman law.
6 For an instance in which a Theodosian constitution is excerpted in only one manuscript of the
Breviary, cf. Conrat (1891), i, 151. Cf. also the following footnote.
7 It is not at all likely that Isidore used the Theodosian Code unabridged; cf. Conrat (1891), i,
151; Kubler, loc. cit.; M. L. W. Laistner, 'Dediticii,' Journal of RPman Studies, xi (1921), 267 f.
8 It is probably better to regard the phrase, not as an etymology of the word maleficus, but as a
justification for the application of the opprobrious term to soothsayers and other practitioners of
magic; cf. the word 'vere' in Lactantius, loc. cit. On the infrequency of attempts at etymology in the
writings of Roman jurisprudence, cf. Conrat (1891), i, 151.
9 Loc. cit.
10 Brev. Alaric., ix, 13, 1, 2, and 3 (= Cod. Theod., ix, 16, 3, 4, and 7); cf. Conrat (1903), pp. 558-
560. Cf. also the excerpts from Paulus which appear on the pages last cited.
11 The Theodosian constitutions cited in the preceding footnote are all dated between 317 and 364
A.D. by T. Mommsen, Theodosiani Libri XVI (Berlin: 1905), i, 2, 460-462.