No One Could Even Read Them

Entry of the Day:

"Qui multa scripserunt" in Isidore's Etymologies

Those who have written many things (Qui multa scripserunt) 1. Among Latin speakers, Marcus Terentius Varro wrote innumerable books. Among the Greeks likewise Chalcenterus (i.e. Didumus) is exalted with great praise because he published so many books that any of us would be hard put merely to copy out in our own hand such a number of works by another. 2. From us (i.e. Christians) also Origen, among the Greeks, in his labor with the Scriptures has surpassed both Greeks and Latins by the number of his works. In fact Jerome says that he has read six thousand of his books. 3. Still, Augustine with his intelligence and learning overcomes the output of all of these, for he wrote so much that not only could no one, working by day and night, copy his books, but no one could even read them.

From Isidore, Etymologies, p. 139; VI.vii.1–3