Intellectual Culture And Literary Practices 337
Classical and Christian Learning
Like their predecessors, lay and clerical aristocrats of Ostrogothic Italy contin-
ued to receive classical education, a mark of their status and power. They were
also brought up as Christians, and some learned people such as Boethius and
Cassiodorus combined their secular literary interests with a deep engagement
in theology and exegesis. Individual private libraries included works written
by fathers of the church. Thus Proba (commonly identified as a daughter of
Symmachus and sister-in-law of Boethius) had in her library the complete
writings of Augustine. When Eugippius, later abbot of Castellum Lucullanum,
compiled a collection of excerpts from 40 works of Augustine, he dedicated it
to Proba and specifically mentioned her extensive library in his preface.94
As with their predecessors, some classically educated people in 6th-century
Italy felt the tension between secular literary culture and Christian teachings,
especially when they were clerics or monks. Some radically resolved this ten-
sion, rejecting most of secular learning. Thus according to Gregory the Great,
Benedict of Nursia, who started his literary education in Rome as a young man,
abandoned the studies that in his view led to loose morals and dissolution. Later
in life, Benedict founded monastic communities guided by his Rule, which
emphasized Christian devotion, discipline, and reading of Christian texts.95
Some recognized the usefulness of secular learning and, following ear-
lier authorities such as Augustine, sought to establish the proper place of
such studies in Christian education and scholarship.96 Eugippius turned to
Augustine for guidance and compiled, in the late 5th or early 6th century,
what appears to be the first Augustinian florilegium. Eugippius probably did
not limit his intended audience to monks but rather envisioned a broader
circle of Christian scholars.97 As in other florilegia and commentaries, which
were becoming the most popular genre of philosophical and exegetical works,
Eugippius’ choice of excerpts was significant. Thus when excerpting the
94 Eugippius, Excerpta ex operibus sancti Augustini, Epistula ad Probam virginem, p. 1. Cf.
Cassiodorus, Institutiones 1.23.1. On Proba see Martindale, Prosopography, p. 907; Gometz,
Eugippius, with the letter translated and discussed on pp. 86–99.
95 Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2, Prologue; for this, and for monastic education and read-
ings see Riché, Education and Culture, pp. 50, 109–22; Everett, Literacy, pp. 45–9; Bertelli,
“Production and Distribution of Books”, pp. 45–6.
96 For recent discussions of Augustine’s views on Christian education see essays in Pollmann/
Vessey, Augustine and the Disciplines.
97 The compilation has been dated to the years beetween 488 and 495 or 506 and 511, see
Gometz, Eugippius, pp. 89 and 95. For the intended audience see ibid. pp. 95–6 and Riché,
Education and Culture, pp. 130–1.