BMCR 2002.10.29

Cassiodor: ein Leben für kommenden Zeiten

German Hafner, Cassiodor : ein Leben für kommende Zeiten. Geschichte. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2002. 152 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. ISBN 3515080406. EUR 40.00.

Review by

James O'Donnell, Georgetown University. provost@georgetown.edu

This volume by a distinguished historian of ancient art takes the sixth-century statesman and monk Cassiodorus as the focal point for a meditation on the losses and gains experienced in transition from classical Mediterranean culture to medieval and modern avatars, more and less humanistic. There is no reference to any scholarly literature, but the work seems to have been little informed by contemporary work on Cassiodorus and late antiquity.