Chapter C: Introduction

In books XIII and XIV Isidore gives a complete and systematic account of the material universe, taking up and treating in order the heavens, the atmosphere, water, and earth. His treatment of the last two is especially full and constitutes a geographical description of the earth’s surface as known at his time.[339]

[339] _Cf._ Beazley, _The Dawn of Modern Geography_, pp. 366–67.
See also p. 53, note.

ANALYSIS

I. The universe (Bk. XIII, ch. 1).
II. Atoms (ch. 2).
III. Elements (ch. 3).
IV. The heavens (chs. 4–6).
1. The parts of the heavens.[2]
2. The circles of the heavens.[340]
V. The air and the clouds (chs. 7–11).
1. Thunder.
2. Lightning.
3. The rainbow and cloud forms.
4. The winds.
VI. Waters (chs. 12–22).
1. Springs.
2. The sea.
3. The ocean.
4. The Mediterranean.
5. Bays, etc.
6. Lakes.
7. The abyss.
8. Rivers.
VII. The dry land (Bk. XIV, ch. 1).
1. The circle of lands (chs. 2–5).
(1) Asia.
(2) Europe.
(3) Africa.
2. Islands (ch. 6).
3. Promontories (ch. 7).
4. Mountains, etc. (ch. 8).
5. The lower parts of the earth (ch. 9).

[340] Repeated with little change from _De Astronomia_. See pp.
145, 146.