"Institutions of Divine and Secular Learining" of Cassiodorus is a treatise about Christian education and a sort of catalogue of books (in many respects similar to the genre of the De viris illustribus). It is usually connected with the community of Vivarium and the scholarly and literary pursuits of its members. The work, however, was revised several times and therefore, it is probable that the earlier versions were drafted by Cassiodorus already in the 530s when he was still at office in Ravenna, at the court of the Ostrogothic king. Mommsen (1894: ix) supposed that Cassiodorus borrowed the title from Junilius, the author of Instituta composed in 542 whose works Cassiodorus certainly knew (I.10.1). Moreover, Cassiodorus mentions Pope Vigilius as if he was already dead, therefore after 555. The composition and revision of the Institutions most probably took several decades, and possibly extended even past the 560s. It cannot be, however, more precisely defined (see Cappuyns 1949: 1371-73, Vessey 2004: 22-24).