Back to the Library
The Church Fathers · c. 613
On the Nature of Things
De Natura Rerum
Isidore of Seville · c. 560–636
Read elsewhere
What it is
A short handbook on the heavens, the seasons, thunder, tides, and pestilence, written for a Visigothic king who had asked about eclipses.
Why it lasted
It kept a thread of ancient natural science alive in the West, and was copied and illustrated for centuries.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next