Isidore of Seville on the Course of the Nile

ABSTRACT: At first glance, the description Isidore of Seville gives of the course of the Nile in his Etymologiae seems both insufficient and erroneous, especially as he says the river turns south before entering Egypt. Reference to a modern map only compounds the problem. When, however, we take into account Isidore’s conception of the world, and the African continent in particular, and his habit of conveying in his own work only a limited number of the concepts from his sources that inform his thought, we see that the course he ascribes to the Nile accords with the best geographical science of his day