scriptorium
Vivarium (Cassiodorus)
554–630
attested. Attested by Cassiodorus's own writings. The exact site near Squillace is debated; coordinates are approximate.
The retired statesman Cassiodorus founded a monastery on his estate near Squillace in Calabria, named for its fish ponds. He made copying, correcting and translating texts a monastic duty. Its books dispersed after his death; one of its Bibles reached Northumbria.
Place: Vivarium (near Squillace) · On the map
People
- Cassiodorus (founder, c. 554)
Manuscripts made here
Cassiodorus's Institutiones (guide to sacred and secular reading)
Kept now: many medieval copies, e.g. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Patr. 61
Codex Grandior (great one-volume Bible), model for the Codex Amiatinus
Kept now: Grandior lost; Amiatinus in Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1
Latin translation of Josephus's Antiquities commissioned by Cassiodorus
Kept now: medieval copies
Sources
- CassiodorusConfessional source
- Vivarium (Wikipedia)
- Codex Amiatinus (Wikipedia)