KASSIDOR Flavius Magnesium Aurelius (Cassiodorus, Flavius Magnus Aurelius)

Cassiodorus, Flavius Aurelius Magnesium; Cassiodorus, Flavius Magnus Aurelius, ca. 490-OK. 583 years. n. e., the Roman historian, Latin Christian writer. Born in southern Italy in the family of higher officials, the Syrians by origin. Received a comprehensive education and his father enrolled him in the public service at the court Ostrogoth kings Theodoric the Great (493-526 gg.), His daughter Amalasuntha (526-535 gg.) And Vitiga (536-540 gg.). K. passed all stages of bureaucratic hierarchy (507-511 gg. - Quaestor, 514 g. - Consul, between 523 and 527 gg. - Court ceremonies, 533 g. - Prefect of Pretoria), and the performance of the post of prefect was a patrician. Problem,. as head of the court office was a stylistic treatment of the royal orders.

To. was also a scholar-historian. Ok. 540, when the Gothic dominion apparently nearing completion, K. withdrew from public affairs in the territories of their ancestral possessions in Calabria founded a monastery. I do not being a monk nonetheless supported in word and deed he created a community. His long-standing plan, supported by Pope Agapit (535-536), on the basis of higher theological school in Rome, K. implemented here, . in Vivarium, . which was founded a monastery, . who was also the scientific and religious center, . where had all, . that could provide the science of the time (including the largest at the time book collection), . and the monks studied not only the Scriptures, . but secular science,
. Consequently, the creativity to. splits into two fundamentally different parts of. In the first period belong to the Chronicle (Chronica), which begins with creation of the world and, based on Eusebius, Jerome and Libya, are lists of the Assyrian, Latin, Roman kings, as well as the Roman consuls until 519 g. n. e., that is, the writing works.

At some names to. puts a brief historical and literary notes, introducing the ready in a positive light whenever possible. This bias was even more pointed is not preserved, but we know in the retelling of the Jordan product of the historical origins and history is ready (De origine actibusque Gothorum) in 12 books, written in 526-533 years. In accordance with the thrust of the policy of Theodoric, K. wanted to prove that the Goths in ancient times, played an important role in world history, and now, along with the Romans could decide the fate of the world. In 537 g. K. published in 12 books, 468 stationery documents entitled Variarum libri XII. These were the documents which he himself wrote, staying in high government positions, or those that he edited on behalf of the King. In books VI and VII, we find examples of letters, in which the Office of the substitutes for the corresponding data.

LETTERS TO. eagerly read in the Middle Ages and became the model official correspondence. Although K. and published the letters, most from his point of view interesting stylistically, often omitting the specific names, dates, and t. subsection, they are of considerable historical interest as a source for the study of social life at that time. Fragmentarily preserved Speeches (Orationes) and history of the genus Cassiodorus (Ordo genesis Cassiodororum). A small treatise on the soul (De anima), although it was established a few years later, was to be a book Variarum and XIII as a connecting link between the secular and creative theology. All the creativity of the second period, when K. focused on the theological and encyclopedic research, identifies the care of the spiritual and intellectual development of the monks

. Exegetical writings, . such as the commentary to the Psalm (Expositio psalmorum) often read in the Middle Ages, . comments on some of the books of the New Testament, or lost Liber memorialis (Memorial book) should have to serve the religious education of the monks,
. The most significant work to. Indications are (Institutiones) in 2 books, is a sort of introduction to the study of secular and religious sciences, which were designed to facilitate their uptake by the monks. Book I, also called the Law of God (Divinae litterae), provides an introduction to the study of theology. K. is worthy of reading the book from a rich library of the monastery and briefly describes zasuzhivayuschih attention to Christian writers. The monks were incapable of scientific work, to. directs the work in the garden, in the field, caring for patients, encouraging them to relevant literature. But most important for a monk to work. considers rewriting of Scripture. Therefore, he focuses on spelling lessons, and at the end of life (age 93) at the request of the monks wrote based on a sample of the different grammars little work about the spelling, which has a large value for K. retained its numerous fragments of lost works of grammatical.

In the book. II, also known as the Secular Sciences (Saeculares or Humanae litterae), K. 7 sections, presented 7 recognizes sciences (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, astronomy and music), that is, all secular science, which he considered a necessary complement to theology. Handbook for the Study of Church History Church was in three parts (Historia ecclesiastica tripartita) in 13 books, composed of fragments of three historians of the Church: Teodoreta, Sozomen and Socrates, translated into Latin Yepifaniy scholastic. It was conceived by the continuation of Ecclesiastical History Eusebius of Caesarea. Greatest importance was not so much a social or literary activity to. (he wrote first for the royal court, then for the monks), but above all, teaching and education. He founded a monastery library, well equipped with theological publications and manuals on the secular sciences, including the natural, and ordered to collect and transcribe. and then translating the Greek manuscripts into Latin. Center, which was Vivarium, fell apart after the death of its founder, but it was revived in the monastic schools of the Carolingian era and Middle Ages, where the product K. served as teaching aids.