About Vivarium

In this introductory post I want to sketch out a few themes on which I will expand in future posts. For now I will just briefly explain what this blog is, why it is called Vivarium, and what directions I anticipate it taking over the course of the next two years and beyond, although I can't even begin to predict where I will go from here--such is the joy of life and especially of new beginnings.

I am beginning the masters program in library and information science at Syracuse University this summer as a distance student. (Due to program requirements and my upstate New York connections, my program will include occasional residencies.) My previous academic background is in classics and English as an undergraduate, and religious studies as a graduate student, with a particular interest in patristics, especially that slippery period called late antiquity, from the decline of the Roman empire to the early Middle Ages. This blog takes its name from the monastery founded by Cassiodorus late in his life on his estate in southern Italy. One of the missions of his monastery and the object of his writings was to found a library for the preservation of classical learning, both sacred and secular. I am interested in the interplay of preservation and innovation, as well as the transition from classical Roman culture to full-fledged Christendom, both of which the idea of Vivarium captures (and other concepts as well).

As my interests and background suggest, I am passionately attached to all things old, and of course this includes rare books, even the form of the book-as-codex itself, which may become obsolete within my lifetime. It is probably a healthy challenge for me to enter a program (not to mention a field) that is very technology-oriented. I hope I will be able to look back as well as forward, learning to handle old information in new ways.

More to come.