VIVARIUM. — Monastery founded by Cassiodorus (v.), after his retirement from politics, on the family estate at V., near Squillace, situated just below the hilltop where the hero’s tomb stood, so much so that Cassiodorus himself gave the monastery the dual designation of *Vivariensis* and *Castellensis* (*De positione monasterii Vivariensis sive Castellensis*, in *Institutiones divinarum litterarum*, ed. Mommsen, in *MGH, Auctores antiquissimi*, XXIX) and took pleasure in describing the site and its advantages (*Institutiones*, XII, 29; *Variae*, XII, 15; *Expositio Psalmorum*, III, 17).
St. Gregory refers to the monastery as *Castelliniensis* (*Epistulae*, VIII, 30 and VIII, 32, dated 598). The monastery appears to have been founded by Cassiodorus in 555, upon his return from Constantinople, thus fulfilling his long-held desire to establish a “Christian school.” Its scriptorium was immediately put to work. Indeed, the Echternach Gospels, now in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris (ms. lat. 9389), is a copy of a gospel book written at Vivarium in 558.
The founder urged the monks to transcribe and correct books not only for the monastery’s use but also for sale (*Institutiones divinarum litterarum*, XV; XXX). Alongside the monastic library, Cassiodorus’s personal collection was also housed in the foundation (his own words: *mea* or *nostra*: *Institutiones divinarum litterarum*, XXXI), which he later donated to the monastery. The monastic library contained biblical texts, commentaries on Holy Scripture—some brought from Africa (*Institutiones divinarum litterarum*, VIII; XXIX) or elsewhere (ibid., VIII)—as well as volumes on history, medicine, rhetoric, dialectic, agriculture, and music.
The library was partly destroyed by political upheavals and partly dispersed between the 6th and 9th centuries. However, opinions differ regarding the extent of this dispersal (R. Beer, *Bemerkungen über den ältesten Handschriftenbestand des Klosters Bobbio*, in *Anzeiger der Königlich-Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien, Philologisch-historische Klasse*, 48 [1911], pp. 78–104; id., *Monumenta palaeographica Vindobonensia*, II, Leipzig 1913, pp. 15–26; W. Weinberger, *Handschriften von Vivarium*, in *Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle*, IV, Rome 1924, pp. 75–88; P. Lejay, in *Bulletin d’ancienne littérature et d’archéologie chrétiennes*, 3 [1913], p. 265; G. Mercati in the introduction to his edition: *M. Tullii Ciceronis De republica libri e codice rescripto Vaticano latino 5757 phototypice expressi*, Vatican City 1934; more recently, cf. L. W. Jones, *Notes on the Style and Vocabulary of Cassiodorus’ Institutions*, in *Classical Philology*, 50 [1945], pp. 24–31; P. Courcelles, *Les lettres grecques de Macrobe à Cassiodore*, 2nd ed., Paris 1948, pp. 313–88). Some volumes ended up in the Library of the Lateran, others at Jarrow, brought there by Benedict Biscop, as well as at Montecassino, Bobbio, Milan, Verona, Florence, Naples, Bamberg, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Aquignana, Luxeuil, Corbie, Lyon, and St. Gall; a number have been identified by their paleographic characteristics (E. A. Lowe, *Codices latini antiquiores*, III, Oxford 1938, nos. 391–98).
From a study of the miniatures illustrating manuscripts of the *Institutiones* (Codex Bambergensis Patr. 61, 8th c.; Codex Cassellanus Theol., 9th c.; and Codex Herbipolensis, 10th c.), P. Courcelles identified faithful copies of an architectural plan by Cassiodorus, depicting a fishpond, a church with two towers designated *SCS MARTINUS*, a stream labeled *fluvius* or *fluctus pellens* or *apellens*, and another church called *Ilarius*. In Calabria, P. Courcelles identified in the territory of Squillace, slightly south of the present watercourse called Alessi, a locality *S. Martino* attested since 1151, where a modern church stands near the remains of an earlier one; moreover, at the foot of the promontory where the church is located, between natural basins connected to the sea by a channel that he identified as the fishpond, about 800 meters away on a height stands a church now called *S. Maria de Vetere*, where as early as 1219 a Basilian monastery called *S. Maria del Vecchio* in old Squillace is recorded.