I S I 



fjpain for ,|0 years, from the year ygy or 5:96 to 636. 

 He was tlie fon of Severianus. ijovcrnor of Carlliagena, and 

 brotlior of Leander, bilTiop of Seville, who had the care of 

 his education. He prefided at a council held in Seville in 

 619, and at anoth r i'l Toledo in 6_;5 ; in which meafures 

 were adopted that ferved to reform the lax Hate of eccle- 

 fialUcal ckfcipline and manners in Spain. He was a volu- 

 minous writer, and his works arc enumerated by Dupin and 

 Lardner; and the bed ediiion of them was publifhed at 

 P.iris, in i6oi, by father James du Brenil, a Benediftine 

 monk, in folio. As a writer, he is characterized more by 

 learning and pedantry, than by judgment, taile, or accu- 

 racy. . Mofheim reckons him among thofe autliors, who 

 gave rife, by their coUcftions, to that fpecits of divinity, 

 which was afterwards. diltinguifiied by the L-itins under the 

 denomination of " pofitive "theology " Dupin, though he 

 reprefents him as a prodigy of learninsr, and an oracle, ad- 

 mits that he wanted genius, and a diferiminating judgment ; 

 and that his opinions are often falle, and his remarks trivial, 

 and frequently erroneous ; and that his llyle is rather per- 

 fpicuous than eloquent or poli!hed. Ifidore received all the 

 fame books of the New Tertam.nt which we receive ; and 

 he fpeaks of them with great refpett, ftating that they con- 

 tain the precepts of life and the rule of faith, and ihn they 

 may be profitably read by all forts of men. This Ifidore is 

 fometimes called " the younger," to dilliug'iifh him from 

 Ifidore, biihop of Cordova, in the fift^ century, who wrote 

 " Commentaries on the two Books of Kings," wHch he 

 dedicated to Paul Orofius, the difciple of St. Auguftine. 

 Cave. Moflieim. Dupin. Lardner. 



Ifidore was a man of great and extenfive learning, but 

 particularly, it is faid, in geometry, mufic, and aftrology, 

 which, in the time of Ifidore, was another name for aftro- 

 nomy. 



Hfs book on the holy offices contains the principal points 

 of difcipline and ecclefiaftical polity. He is frequently 

 ranked among miifical writers. In his treaiife on the divine 

 offices, much curious information occurs concerning canto 

 fermo, and mufic in general ; but particularly its introduc- 

 tion into the church, the inftitution of the four tones by St. 

 Ambrofe, and the extenfion of that number to eight by St. 

 Gregory. In treating of fecular mufic, he has a lliort 

 chapter on each of the following fubjecls : of mufic, and its 

 name: of its invention: its definition: of its three con'H- 

 tuent parts, harmonics, rhythm, and metre: of mufical 

 numbers: of the three-fold divifions of mufic ; id. Of the 

 harmonical divifion of mufic ; zdly, Of the organic or iii- 

 ilrumental divifion ; jdly. Of the rhythmical divifioi. 



Thefe chapters are very fliort, and contain little more 

 than conipreffed definitions of mufical terms. In enumerat- 

 ing the feven liberal arts, cap. ii. he ranks them in the fol- 

 lowing manner : grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, mu- 

 fic, geometry,. aibronor?.y, Ifidore died in the year 636, 

 and 15 enrolled among the faints of the Roinift calendar. 



Isij«>i!E, Meucato:!, or Peccatok, the narr,e given to 

 the author of a colledion of c:".;ions, which for fome time 

 were attrib'ited to Ifidore of Seville, is fuppofed to have 

 fliNirifhed towards the clofe of the eighth century. ThJs 

 collection contains the pretended decretals of more than fixty 

 popes, which are followed by the canons of the councils 

 which were held in G-eece, Africa, France, and Spaiji. 

 They are generally confidered as fpurious, of which there is 

 abun<!ant uiternal evidence, arifing from the llyle, the in- 

 corrtdncfs of their dates, and- from many hillorical, geo- 

 graphical, and chronological errors. They were invented 

 for the purpofe of ftrengiheiiing. the already overgrown 

 power of the church, and to- enfiorce tjie belief that iLe 



I S I 



biihop of Rome was conftitu'ed and appointed by Jefns 

 Ciiriil as fupreme legislator and judge of the cliurcii uni- 

 verfid ; and that, therefore, the bilhops dcri\ed all their 

 authority from the Ro . an pontiff, ror could the councils 

 determine any thing without his permifilon and confent. 

 Tluuigh the forgery was manifeil to every thinking perfon, 

 yet with the great mafs of the people it produced the in- 

 tended effed," and contributed to enrich and aggrandize the 

 Roman pontiffs, and exalt them above all human authority 

 and jurlfdidion. Moreri. Mofheim. 



I-iDOHE of Charax, a Greek author, in the time of 

 Ptolemy Lagus, about three centuries before the Chrillian 

 era, compofed feveral hillorical works, and a defcription of 

 Parthia, which has been pubiiilied by Hefchelius, and like- 

 wife at Oxford, among the col eciion of the lefler geo- 

 graphers. It is entitled " Manfiono? Parthici' " 



ISIDORO, St., iu Geography, a town of Ca'ifornia ; 

 30 miles N.N.W. of I.oreto. 



ISIGNY, a town of France, in the department of Cal- 

 vados, and chief place of a canton, in the diilrift of B.iyeux ; 

 29 miles W.N W. of Caen. The place contains 18^9, and 

 the canton 13, 651 inhabitants, on a territory of 24.0 kilio- 

 metres, in 29 communes. N lat. 49 19. VV. long. I . — 

 Alfo, a town of France, in the dejiartment of the Channel, 

 and thief place of a canton, in the diflrict of Mortain ; 

 9 miles W. of Mortain. The place c(mtains 358, and the 

 canton 5708 inhabitants, on a territory of yj kiliomelrea, 

 in I I co.nnmnes. 



ISIKOVA, a town of Japan, iu the ifland of Niphoni 

 20 miles SS W. of Kanazava. 



ISIM.-^, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Dora ; 19 miles E. of Aoihi. 



ISIME, a town of Thibet ; 25 miles E. of Harachar. 

 ISINDI, in yliKient Geography, an cpifcopal town of 

 Afia, in the fecoiid Pamphylia. 



ISINDUS, or IsiNDA, a town of Afia, in Ionia. 

 ISINGLASS, a name given to Mufcovy talc, and to 

 Ichthyocolla ; which fee. See alfo Glue. 



Lsi s c;la.s.s Fi/h, in Ichthyology. See Ac ipexser and Huso. 



ISIS, in j^ncient Geography, Tchorok, a river of Afia, in 



the Colchide, which, according to Arrian, was oavigable ; 



and he places it between the mouth of the Acinafis and that 



of Mogra, about 90 (ladja from the one and the other. 



IsLS, in Grography, a name frequently given to the river 

 Thames, before it joins the Thame at Dorchefter; but this 

 river is only a branch of the Tlian-cs, which rifts near Min- 

 chinhampton in Glouceilerfiiire, and joins the main ilieam 

 near Leehlade. 



I.-i.s, in Mythology, a goddefs of the ancient Egyptians, 

 worfhipped by llum and many other nations. 



Ifis, according to fome, is fynonymous with ■jrxX^iy, 

 ancient or aged, an expreffion which, in the Egyptian 

 theology, was appropriated to the moon, on .iccount of her 

 eternal birth. According to others, and particii'arly Jah- 

 lonfki, (Pantheon Egyptiacum, vo'.ii.) Ifis, in the Egyp- 

 tian language, lignificd " the caufe of abundance:' and it 

 was applied by the Egyptian priells to the ntoon, bicaufe 

 they fuppofed, in confequence of attention to the phenotr.tna 

 of nature, that the moon has a direft influence on the at- 

 mofphere, the winds, and the raiws ; and therefore they 

 regarded it, like the fun (which they called Ofiris), as one 

 of the fources of the iiiundalion of the Nile. Hence 1 hey 

 were led to charaftcri-ze this beneficial effect, by deuomiiiat- 

 iiig the caufe of it Ifis. This is faid to have happened 320 

 y«ars after the exodus of the I Iraehlcs ; at wiiieh period 

 they bellowed furnames on the fun and moon, proper to fi)» 

 iheir difcoverit;s> aud profented the people with a iicw theo. 



logy. 



