Cassiodorus (c. 487–c. 585 CE) continued this tradition of libraries when he founded the Vivarium monastery about 554 CE. Like Benedict, he collected manuscripts and directed his monks to copy Christian and non-Christian authors. So vast and timely was the collection in his library that without it, much of the wisdom of antiquity would be lost to us today. As the Roman Empire crumbled, Cassiodorus “helped to save the culture of Rome at a time of impending barbarism.”
