[[1.]] I follow the stemma given by A. van de Vyver, Rev. Ben., 53(1941), 59-88, against the more unwieldy version of P. Courcelle, Revue des études anciennes, 44(1942), 65-86. The raw material for the history of the text is lucidly presented in Mynors' edition.
[[2.]] Lowe, CLA, 4.496, says of Verona XXXIX(37), that it is "Uncial, saec. 6-7; written in Italy and apparently in the North." On Maffei's discovery and publication of the Complexiones, see Maffei's own remarks at the beginning and end of his edition and also W. Telfer, Harvard Theological Review, 36(1943), 169-246, esp. 229-230.
[[3.]] An examination of Maffei's facsimile of a text page reveals these sections are so numbered in the sixth-century manuscript; the numbers may well have been keyed to the master copy of the text at the Vivarium.
[[4.]] Traces of the old habits break through, as ad Rom. 8.24 (PL 70.1326C): "Hoc argumentum dicitur climax, id est gradatio, quod etiam in subsequentibus frequenter assumit."
[[5.]] H. Keil, in his introduction to his edition of the De orth., Grammatici Latini (1880), 7.129-142, summarizes what we know of the sources.
[[6.]] Adamantius is cited by page and line from Gram. Lat. 7, where Keil printed Adamantius in parallel on the same pages with Cassiodorus' excerpts, thus resulting in duplicate page and line numbers as I cite them here.
[[7.]] Cassiodorus (De orth. 195.1-5): "bibo quoque propter discretionera a vita per v, a potu per b scribendum est; et abeo, id est discedo, obeo circumeo, subeo succedo ac similia praepositionum gratia per b arbitror scribenda, etiam deponentia b mutam in scriptura tenere usus et consuetudo antiquitus tradidit." Adamantius (195.2-4): "bibo quoque propter discretionem, et abeo obeo subeo ac similia praepositiouum gratia, arbitror enim deponens b mutam in scriptura tenere usus et consuetudo antiquitus tradidit." Adamantius used arbitror as an example of the use of the letter b, while Cassiodorus misunderstood and rewrote the sentence to give it a place of its own in the syntax.
[[8.]] Greg. Mag., Ep. 8.32 (MGH, Epp. 2.35), mentioning "monasterium Castelliense"; and 8.30 (MGH, Epp. 2.32), arranging ordination of a priest for the community, also dated to 598. See H. Thiele, Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner-Ordens und seiner Zweige, 50(1932), 378-419.
[[9.]] Cassiodorus is the first writer to use the word modernus regularly (in works as early as the Variae); cœ W. recund, Modernus und andere Zeitbegrifife des Mittelalters (1957), 27-40.
[[10.]] "You belong to many, my book, whom past ages have brought forth, but new brevity claims you as my own. When all the sayings of the ancients have been mined from their books, thcre is need of a fresh approach to say much in a brief space. Let the young man whom wordy pages terrify study you instead, or anyone who likes to find out important things in few words; let the traveler starting a long journey not hesitate to take you along, carrying a lot without being weighed down; if anyone wishes to copy you, he won't be able to complain of the trouble or the burden of doing so. This is what everyone wants: the censure of the scholar will never berate this work, if only envy is withheld."
[[11.]] H. Delahaye, Melanges Paul Fabre (1902), 40-50; cf. p. 49, placing the work "parmi les romans les plus absurdes qui deshonorent la littérature hagiographique." Anothcr manuscript with a litany containing the same namcs is notcd by M. Coons, Analecta Bollandiana, 59(1941), 272-298.
[[12.]] G. Jacopi, Pepragmena tou 9. Diethnous Byzantinologikou Synedriou (1955), 1.204.
[[13.]] J. Hammer, Bulletin of the Polish Institute' of Arts and Sciences in America, 3(1944-1945), 369-384, is a popularizing lecture along this line.
[[14.]] see G. Slaughter, Calabria: The First Italy (1939), who dedicates a chapter to Cassiodorus, "the Last of the Romans." Slaughter may have been led astray by the baseless claim of F. Schneider, that Cassiodorus was not "im Ernst" about religion (Rom und Romgedanke im Mittelalter [1926], 92, in an essay held in too high esteem for too long).
[[15.]] Courcelle, LLW, 401: "It appears then, contrary to the hitherto held view, that Cassiodorus' influence was more weighty for the preservation of Christian literature than for that of the profane writers." See also R. Schlieben, Cassiodors Psalmexegese (1970), 248: "Überhaupt ist Cassiodors Einfluss auf das Mittelalter sehr überschatzt worden .... Cassiodor passt nicht so gut ins Mittelalter, wie man oft gemeint hat."
[[16.]] Courcelle, LLW, 387, approves tacitly, and Lowe, CLA, 11.1614, finds "seemingly cogent" the arguments for Vivarian origin (and possible Cassiodorian autograph on a part) set forth by O. Dobiache-Rojdestvensky, Speculum, 5(1930), 21-48.
[[17.]] Courcelle, LLW, 361-375, on the Lateran theory; for further evidence, A. Ceresa-Gastaldo, Giornale Italiano di Filologia, 22.3 (1970), 39-46.
[[18.]] E.g., earliest MSS: Inst., 8th century; De an., 9th; Var., 11th.
[[19.]] For information in the following paragraphs dealing with the knowledge of Cassiodorus in England, I use without footnoting in each case, J.D.A. Ogilvy, Books Known to the English, 597-1066 (1967), 106--108, a model catalogue of its kind. I further make frequent use of entries from M. Manitius, Handschriften antiker Autoren im Mittelalterlichen Bibliothekskatalogen (1935), s.v. Cassiodorus and Josephus. Finally, I take note of references to Cassiodorus in medieval authors from Garet's list, printed in PL 69, from J.J. van den Besselaar, Cassiodorus Senator en zijn Variae (1945), from L.W. Jones's introduction to his translation of the Inst., pp. 49-59, from occasional notices by myself and colleagues, and from other sources as noted specifically below.
[[20.]] See the discussion of MSS in Mommsen's preface to MGH.AA.XII, Ixviii-cx.
[[21.]] L. W. Jones, op. cit., 55, on 12th-century quotations from the Variae; all of Jones's conclusions have to be checked against his emendatory article in Speculum, 22(1947), 254-256.
[[22.]] Cf. W. Ullmann, The Individual and Society in the Middle Ages (1966), 119, on the distinction between political and ethical theory transmitted by Aristotle.
[[23.]] P. Lehmann, Erforschung des Mittelalters (1959), 2.39; the mention of pontiffs in Higden's citation may indicate that he did not look too closely at the Chronica itself.
[[24.]] J.W. Halporn, introduction to the De anima, CCSL 96.516-527.
[[25.]] And cf. Paul the Deacon, Hist. Langobard. 1.25 (quoted by Mommsen, MGH.AA.XII, vii): "Huius temporibus Cassiodorus apud urbem Romam tam saeculari quam divina scientia claruit, qui inter cetera quae nobiliter scripsit psalmorum praecipue occulta potentissime reseravit. hic primitus consul, deinde senator, ad postremum vero monachus extitit."
[[26.]] Some scraps of evidence for its influence can be gleaned from B. Bischoff, SE, 6(1954), 189-281.
[[27.]] MS Vercelli Biblioteca Capitolare CLXXXIII (Lowe, CLA, 4.469); containing on folios 99v to 102v the abstract entitled "Notitia librorum catholicorum doctorum, qui in divinis voluminibus expositionem fecerunt; Cassiodori Senatoris." Lowe assigns it to northern Italy, probably Vercelli, early eighth century; semicursive script. A page of this curious work can be read by the eagle-eyed in P. Liebaert and F. Ehrle, eds., Specimina codicum latinorum vaticanorum, ed. 2(1932), no. 9, showing 102r; the work is described in A. Reifferscheid, Bibliotheca patrum latinorum italica (1865-1871), 2.203. The abstract is wholly functional, with chunks of Cassiodorus' rhetoric omitted and the schedule of pericopes set out very baldly.
[[28.]] W. Milde, Der Bibliothekskatalog des Klosters Murbach aus dem 9. Jahrhundert (1968).
[[29.]] Lehmann, Erforschung des Mittelalters (1959), 2.40; cf. 2.66, on Cassiodorus' influence: "Nicht einmal von den Iren und Angelsachsen des 7./8. Jahrhunderts ist es mir gewiss, ob sie die ganzen Inhalt der Institutiones gekannt haben. Und als dann im karolingischen Zeitalter das genannte Werk weiteren Kreisen bekannt wurde und der Sinn fur die Studien wuchs, selbst da sah man in den Institutiones mehr eine Wissensquelle als dass man aus ihnen die Richtlinien ernster wissenschaftlicher Arbeit entnahm."
[[30.]] There also circulated a treatise, "De oratione et octo partibus orationis" (PL 70.1219-1240) attributed to Cassiodorus; it may even be genuine, as M. Cappuyns, DHGE, 11(1949), 1374, argued.
[[31.]] G. Bardy, Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, 43(1948), 179- 191.
[[32.]] M.L.W. Laistner, Harvard Theological Review, 41(1948), 51-67, esp. 63-64.
[[33.]] Greg. Mag., Ep. 7.31 (MGH, Epp. 1.478-481).
[[34.]] H. de Lubac, Exégèse Médiévale (1959-1964), 1.270.
[[35.]] Edited by Christine Boot, Diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1968: DA 29A.560).
[[36.]] MS St. Gall Stiftsbibliothek 908 (Lowe, CLA, 7.965) contains Junillus and the Formulae of Eucherius (fragm.), both in the primary script of twentyfour palimpsest folios that have been recut and written on in the opposite direction so as to be fragmentary at all times. Primary script is north Italian pre-Carolingian minuscule, dated to saec. 7-8 (CLA), saec. 6 (H. Kihn, Theodor yon Mopsuestia und Junilius als Exegeten [1880]), saec. 8 (Lindsay, Notae Latinae [1915], 485). That manuscript was not listed by M.L.W. Laistner, Harvard Theological Review, 40(1947), 19-32; in his catalogue there, pp. 24-26, I find: Karlsruhe Augiensis 111, fragments of Eucherius and fragments of Book I of Junillus on folios 66v to 72v (early ninth century, from Reichenau); and Valenciennes 95, Euchcrius and Juuillus (mnth century, irom St. Amand). (And concerning the Augiensis, recall that the Ordo generis is preserved in full in Augiensis 106, perhaps indicating a common Vivarian descent.)
[[37.]]M.L.W. Laistner, Harvard Theological Review, 40(1947), 19-32, showed MSS from before the ninth century from locations as diverse as southern England, northern France, and northern Italy.
[[38.]] The proof is in the MSS. In the first passage quoted, one MS, and a good one, reverses the letters, giving the delta to the teacher, the mu to the students. In the second passage, two different ancient MSS, closely related (and not including the one with the first variant), give the text as "magistro interrogante" and "discipulis respondentibus." Finally, in the text of all MSS of the dialogue itself, the questions are asked by "D" and answered by "M," except that one of the two manuscripts which kept the roles straight in the second passage further recognized the inconsistency and went all the way through reversing the initials. Through this haze of variants, the original use as given in the text above is visible; it was first descried by A. Rahlfs, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (1891), 242-246, who rightly labeled the dialogue a catechism.
[[39.]] For this curious breakdown in transmission between Latin and Greek authors, see L. Traube, Vorlesungen und Abhandlungen (1911), 2.99-100. The confusion influenced the form of later literary dialogues, including Eriugena's Periphyseon (9th century). G. Pasquali, Storia della tradizione e critica del testo (2nd ed., 1962), 147-148, touched on the issue and barely missed seeing the whole Cassiodorus connection. The Tusculan Disputations of Cicero suffer a related contamination: see M. Pohlenz, Hermes, 46(1911), 627-629.
[[40.]] Lehmann, Erforschung des Mittelalters (1959), 2.66-79, traces the fortunes of the Institutiones and prints a text from a medieval compendium comprising the heart of Book 1, including Chapters 1-9, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, and 28 (in that order).
[[41.]] M.L.W. Laistner, Speculum, 5(1930), 217-221, esp. 219. See also B. Fischer, Festschrift für Bernhard Bischoff (1971), 90-110; and P. Salmon, Les "tituli psalmorum" des manuscrits latines (1959), 151-186.
[[42.]] M.L.W. Laistner, Speculum, 5(1930), 221.
[[43.]] F. Di Capua, Il Mondo Classico, 9(1939), 211-218.
[[44.]] Joan Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny, 910-1157 (1968), 98.
[[45.]] Erasmus, Ep. 2143, quoted by Mynors on p. 87 of his edition of the Inst.
[[46.]] For Cassiodorus' reputation in medieval eyes as a librarian, Lehmann, Erforschung des Mittelalters (1959), 2.81-83, printed the following poem from MS St. Gall 199, possibly by Peter of Pisa:
Cassio- libripotens titulaverat ordine -dorus quae docili patres sanxerunt dogmata sensu, dicta notans vatum divino famine farsa summaque praelibans cumulum confecit opimum, historicosque viros, claro sermone nitentes, prudenter calamo perstrinxerat atque notavit septena priscos pollentes arte magistros. Insuper in summum redi(g)ens geminosque libellos picturis, numeris, titulis ciclisque rotundis egregia forma discentibus ipse reliquit.
[[47.]] For the suggestion on the survival of Cato, see E. Norden, Die antike Kunstprosa (3rd ed., 1898), 664.
[[48.]] Note how proportionately few classical texts are preserved in the MSS indexed in CLA.
[[49.]] There is now a journal of European origin entitled Vivarium that seeks to honor Cassiodorus by dedicating itself to the study of the secular side of medieval culture; that was an ignorant choice of title.
[[50.]] The 1679 edition is considerably rarer than the reprint made in 1729 at Venice.
[[51.]] Cassiodorus has not, to be sure, held much of a place in the literary imagination of modern man. Jordanes found a place in the libraries of the Abbe Faria (in A. Dumas, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) and des Esseintes (J. K. Huysmans, À Rebours).
[[52.]] Works noted in this paragraph are listed by authors in the Bibliography.
[[53.]] For Courcelle's intended edition, see E. Michon, Comptes-rendus de l'Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (1937), 214.
[[54.]] There is an edition by P. Donelin that covers approximately half of the work in his dissertation at the Catholic University of America in 1970. This edition restores MS rcadings eighty times against Maffei, emends further thirty times, and includes an index of linguistic and stylistic matters. The work should be brought to a conclusion.