The Division of Knowledge between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Diagrams on the "divisio philosophiae" in Cassiodorus’ "Institutiones saeculares"

At the beginning of the "De dialectica" chapter of his "Institutiones saeculares", Cassiodorus places a diagram illustrating the traditional Aristotelian division of Philosophy into "inspectiua" and "actualis", probably following a Greek source from the Alexandrian School. The same scheme is adopted by Isidore in his "Etymologiae"; Isidore, however, also combines it with the ‘Platonic’ divisio of the same discipline into "physica", "ethica" and "logica". It is, therefore, primarily from Cassiodorus and Isidore that the Carolingian Renaissance received the opposition between these ‘Platonic’ and ‘Aristotelian’ schemes, which became so relevant in subsequent centuries for the classification of the Liberal Arts. This article discusses the additions to Cassiodorus’ "divisio philosophiae" in the second interpolated recension of the "Institutiones" (Δ), that is, the textual form in which this work enjoyed its greatest popularity between the ninth and the eleventh centuries. Interpolations in Δ manuscripts are affected by textual mistakes and at times obscure, as a result of the attempt to balance the various branches of ‘Platonic’ and ‘Aristotelian’ schemes, but they also show traces of possibly ancient Greek material. A careful analysis of this material will therefore allow us to consider copyists’ and readers’ competences on the classification of knowledge during the Early Middle Ages.