Bishop Isidore of Seville and his treatise "De ecclesiasticis officiis" as a source of information about the liturgical tradition of the ancient church

This article is dedicated to Isidore, bishop of Seville, a Latin Father of the Church and a Christian writer of the late VI and early VII century. Te article outlines his biography and tells about his literary heritage. The article is primarily focussed on the treatise De ecclesiasticis officiis, a kind of medieval encyclopaedia of Christian worship. Despite the fact that Isidore of Seville wrote this essay in his younger years, De ecclesiasticis officiis is one of the most important works of this author. It is unique among medieval sources in containing important information about the divine service in the territory of the Iberian Peninsula in the early Middle Ages. The article also describes the events associated with the appearance of this work, as well as discusses its general characteristics, contents and structure. The emphasis is being placed on those chapters of De ecclesiasticis officiis that are directly related to the liturgical tradition of the Spanish Church and testify to its ancient rites, primarily of the Baptism and the Eucharist.