War does more than destroy buildings. It can also erase knowledge accumulated over centuries. In Italy during the sixth century, battles throughout the region damaged the cities, schools, and libraries that were once centers of learning.At a time when the Western Roman Empire had already fallen and rival rulers were fighting for control of Italy, priceless books and ancient ideas were about to disappear forever. But one Roman official believed there was a way to protect them.Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus worked in government for years before leaving politics and founding a monastery where monks copied, translated, and preserved manuscripts. His work helped save religious writings as well as important books on history, philosophy, ethics, and literature, which people continue to read today.
years of struggle
The fall of the Roman Empire did not happen in a single event. Historians usually mark AD 476 as the end of the Western Roman Empire, when the last emperor Romulus Augustulus was removed from power by the Gothic commander Odoacer.Even after that, fighting continued and one of the largest conflicts came during the Gothic War which lasted nearly two decades and caused widespread destruction throughout Italy.As cities suffered damage, schools and libraries were also damaged. It became difficult to protect books and learning itself was in danger. It was during this period that Cassiodorus decided that preserving knowledge had become as important as winning battles.
This eighth-century Codex Amiatinus illustration depicts Ezra, but many scholars believe it also represents Cassiodorus. (Image source: Georgetown University)
he valued learning
Cassiodorus was born around 485 AD, near present-day Catanzaro in southern Italy. He served under the Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great and eventually became Praetorian Prefect, one of the highest offices in the government. Cassiodorus was also highly educated. He studied law, Greek and Latin literature. His writing ability made him an important advisor and he often drafted official letters for the royal court.Many of those letters were later collected in a work called Veria. They reveal his interest in government affairs as well as subjects such as philosophy, mathematics and music.After leaving public office, Cassiodorus traveled to Constantinople, where he spent several years studying theology.At the time, many important philosophical and theological works were still available in Greek, including the writings of Plato and Aristotle and early Christian texts.However, few people in Western Europe could read Greek. As contact with the Eastern Roman Empire weakened, access to those works also diminished.Cassiodorus realized that if no one copied or translated these texts, future generations would never be able to read them. So he began translating Greek works into Latin, encouraging others to study both traditions.
This illustration from an eighth-century Bamberg manuscript shows one of Cassiodorus’s most famous depictions of the Vivarium Monastery. (Image: Georgetown University)
the monastery became the center
Later in life, Cassiodorus returned to his family’s estate in southern Italy and founded the Vivarium Monastery. It included living quarters for the monks, separate buildings for the monks, a library, and even a bookshop for visitors. It also provided shelter to the needy and treatment to the sick.Unlike many monasteries of the time, Vivarium emphasized religious life as well as learning. Cassiodorus told the monks, writes the Epoch Times, “With God’s help, I was moved by divine love to prepare these introductory books to take the place of a teacher for the monks.”He said that these books would help readers understand both “the sacred scriptures” and “a brief sketch of the secular letters”.Although the monastery was Christian, Cassiodorus believed that knowledge should not be limited to religious writings alone. The library contained copies of the Bible and Christian commentaries, but also included the works of authors such as Cicero and Aristotle.He also wanted the manuscripts to be copied carefully and attractively. Inspired by the idea that beauty and goodness are interconnected, he believed that creating beautiful handwritten books was an important task in itself.
a lasting impact
Cassiodorus did not stop the wars that continued throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. But his ideas changed the role of monasteries.Before the Vivarium, manuscripts were often copied without much organization. After Cassiodorus, many monasteries across Europe began to consider the preservation of books as one of their main responsibilities.Many of the texts that shaped Western history, including the philosophical works of Plato and Aristotle, historical accounts, Biblical manuscripts, and other classical books, survived because they were copied repeatedly inside monasteries.