Cassiodorus in the context of "Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius"

Monastic schools (Latin: Scholae monasticae) were, along with cathedral schools, the most important institutions of higher learning in the Latin West from the early Middle Ages until the 12th century. Since Cassiodorus's educational program, the standard curriculum incorporated religious studies, the Trivium, and the Quadrivium. In some places monastic schools evolved into medieval universities which eventually largely superseded both institutions as centers of higher learning.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (/boʊˈiːθiəs/; Latin: Boetius; c. 480–524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the translation of the Greek classics into Latin, a precursor to the Scholastic movement, and, along with Cassiodorus, one of the two leading Christian scholars of the 6th century. The local cult of Boethius in the Diocese of Pavia was sanctioned by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1883, confirming the diocese's custom of honouring him on the 23 October.

Boethius was born in Rome a few years after the forced abdication of the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. A member of the Anicii family, he was orphaned following the family's sudden decline and was raised by Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, a later consul. After mastering both Latin and Greek in his youth, Boethius rose to prominence as a statesman during the Ostrogothic Kingdom, becoming a senator by age 25, a consul by age 33, and later chosen as a personal advisor to Theodoric the Great.

Etymologiae (Latin for 'Etymologies'), also known as the Origines ('Origins'), usually abbreviated Orig., is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by the influential Christian bishop Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) towards the end of his life. Isidore was encouraged to write the book by his friend Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa. Etymologiae summarized and organized a wealth of knowledge from hundreds of classical sources; three of its books are derived largely from Pliny the Elder's Natural History. Isidore acknowledges Pliny, but not his other principal sources, namely Cassiodorus, Servius, and Gaius Julius Solinus.

Etymologiae covers an encyclopedic range of topics. Etymology, the origins of words, is prominent, but the work also covers, among other things, grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, medicine, law, the church and heretical sects, pagan philosophers, languages, cities, humans, animals, the physical world, geography, public buildings, roads, metals, rocks, agriculture, war, ships, clothes, food, and tools.

Vitiges (also known as Vitigis, Vitigo, Witigis, Witiges, Wittigis or Wittigeis, and in Old Norse as Vigo) (died 542) was king of Ostrogothic Italy from 536 to 540. Known as a veteran of King Theodoric’s campaigns, he was a seasoned commander & therefore after the fall of the Amal dynasty he succeeded to the throne of Italy just after the Roman capture of Naples. This was because Belisarius had quickly captured Sicily the previous year and was in southern Italy at the head of the forces of Justinian I, the Eastern Roman Emperor.

Vitiges was the husband of Queen Amalaswintha's only surviving child, Mataswintha; therefore, his royal legitimacy was based on this marriage. The panegyric upon the wedding in 536 was delivered by Cassiodorus, the praetorian prefect, and survives, a traditionally Roman form of rhetoric that set the Gothic dynasty in a flatteringly Roman light. Soon after he was made king, Vitiges had his predecessor Theodahad murdered. Theodahad had enraged the Goths because he failed to send any assistance to Naples when it was besieged by the Byzantines, led by Belisarius.

Scolica enchiriadis is an anonymous ninth-century music theory treatise and commentary on its companion work, the Musica enchiriadis. These treatises were once attributed to Hucbald, but this is no longer accepted.

The Scolica enchiriadis is written as a tripartite dialogue, and despite being a commentary on the Musica enchiriadis, it is nearly three times as long. Much of the theory discussed by the treatise is indebted to Augustinian conceptions of music, especially its affirmations of the importance of mathematics to music as kindred disciplines of the quadrivium. Later sections draw heavily on the music theory of Boethius and Cassiodorus, two early medieval authors whose works on music were widely read and circulated hundreds of years after their death. The treatise makes use of the monochord to explain interval relations. The treatise also discusses singing technique, ornamentation of plainchant, and polyphony in the style of organum.

The Vivarium was a monastery founded around the year 544 by the Roman statesman Cassiodorus near Squillace, in Calabria, Italy. He also established a biblical studies center as well as a library. It became a place where scholars worked on preserving Greek and Latin classical literature. Cassiodorus donated his land to the community of Squillace so that the ‘Vivarium’ could be built there. Having acquired the Roman noble title of patricius in 507, his family had become one of the most powerful in Italy.

In 540, Cassiodorus retired from public life and moved into the monastery, ordering the Benedictine monks living there to learn about medicinal herbs and to copy various medical texts, supposedly including works of Galen, Hippocrates and of the pharmacist Dioscorides.

Julius Honorius, also known as Julius Orator, was a teacher of geography during Late Antiquity.

He is known only by a single work, Cosmographia, which is a set of notes he had written down by one of his students while he lectured about a world map (sphaera), and by references to this work by later writers such as Cassiodorus. The importance of the Cosmographia is that it is one of very few geographical works of this period in which any reliance can be placed. A number of variant manuscripts exist, which have been studied by Nicolet & Gautier Dalché. The only (relatively) modern print version was as one of a collection of fragmentary texts published by Riese.