Cassiodorus

Cassiodorus was a sixth-century Roman statesman and scholar who founded the monastic community of Vivarium. He promoted the preservation and copying of classical and Christian texts.

Theodoric the Great: Theodoric the Great was an Ostrogothic king who ruled Italy from 493 to 526. Cassiodorus served Theodoric’s government and helped frame its Roman administrative policy.
Vivarium: Vivarium was a monastic community in southern Italy founded by Cassiodorus. It was the community where Cassiodorus organized religious study and manuscript copying.
Carolingian Renaissance: The Carolingian Renaissance was a revival of Latin learning and manuscript production under the Carolingian rulers. Cassiodorus’s educational ideals and texts formed part of the earlier tradition later Carolingian scholars inherited.
Benedict of Nursia: Benedict of Nursia was a sixth-century monk traditionally associated with the Rule of Saint Benedict. Benedict’s rule centers communal discipline, while Cassiodorus’s writings give unusually explicit attention to scholarship.
Boethius: Boethius was a Roman philosopher and statesman whose writings shaped medieval Latin thought. Like Cassiodorus, Boethius served the Ostrogothic court while working to preserve classical learning.
Institutiones: Institutiones is Cassiodorus’s guide to Christian learning, scriptural study, and the liberal arts. The work sets out the educational program he intended Vivarium’s monks to follow.
Latin manuscript: A Latin manuscript is a handwritten text whose language is Latin. Vivarium’s copying work belonged to the wider manuscript culture that transmitted ancient and Christian writing.
Rule of Saint Benedict: The Rule of Saint Benedict is a sixth-century guide to communal monastic life and discipline. It prescribes monastic practice more directly than Cassiodorus’s educational program does.
Pope Agapetus I: Agapetus I was pope from 535 to 536 and supported a plan for a Christian school in Rome. Cassiodorus collaborated with Agapetus on an unrealized project for advanced Christian study.
Variae: Variae is a collection of official letters and documents composed by Cassiodorus. Its records illuminate his administrative career and the political world behind Vivarium.

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