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Cassiodorus, writing in the 6th century in southern Italy for the guidance of trainee scribes, included punctuation in his Institutions Divinarum et Saecularium Litterarum, recommending “clear pausing in well-regulated delivery”.

Indeed, even after Roman power had shifted to the east, and the Vandal invasion of 455AD had stripped all gold from the doors of the temple, the prefect of Italy, Cassiodorus, was moved to write: “To stand on the lofty Capitol is to see all other works of human intellect surpassed.”

Teutonic heroic saga, properly so-called, consists of the traditions connected with the migration period, the earliest traces of which are found in the works of historical writers such as Ammianus Marcellinus and Cassiodorus.

But in the same way as Cassiodorus and some other writers are insufficient to remove the stain of barbarism from their age, so the artists we treat of cannot redeem theirs from the stigma of its decline.

Charlemagne journeyed in Italy where some schools still existed, and where Priscian, Donatus, Boëtius, Cassiodorus, Augustine, even Virgil and Cicero were read; thence he called teachers to his palace schools; and to Lyons, Orleans or Tours.