Description

The Institutiones humanarum litterarum - that is, the second book of Cassiodorus' masterpiece, devoted to secular learning - have come to us in three different textual forms: the 'authentic' recension Ω, corresponding to Cassiodorus' final wishes, and two subsequent recensions, named Φ and Δ. Here, later interpolations were added starting from an earlier authorial draft, providing modern readers with valuable information about Cassiodorus' progressive revisions and updates. Subsequent additions are also evidence of the early fortune of the Institutiones, showing which texts were actively read and studied from the 6th to the 9th centuries. Following Roger Mynors' and Pierre Courcelle's fundamental intuitions, Ilaria Morresi provides the first complete critical edition of the Φ Δ corpora, based on the systematic study of the manuscript tradition. Much attention is paid to the many diagrams included both within the Institutiones saeculares and the interpolations, which are clues to the great importance of images for Early Mediaeval teaching on Trivium and Quadrivium.