A good many years ago Dircken wrote a short paper with the object of tracing the sources in those parts of the Etymologiae in which Isidore deals with laws or legal terms. He pointed out that, while it could be shown that the ultimate source of Isidore's information was the writings of Gaius, Ulpian or Julius Paulus, it could not be maintained that Isidore himself was directly acquainted with the great jurists of the second and third centuries.