JACQUES DOMINIQUE CASSINI

jacques dominique cassini, count (1748-1845), son of cesar francois cassini, was born at the observatory of paris on the 30th of june 1748. he succeeded in 1784 to the directorate of the observatory; but his plans for its restoration and re-equipment were wrecked in 1793 by the animosity of the national assembly. his position having become intolerable, he resigned on the 6th of september, and was thrown into prison in 1794, but released after seven months. he then withdrew to thury, where he died, aged ninety-seven, on the 18th of october 1845. he published in 1770 an account of a voyage to america in 1768, undertaken as the commissary of the academy of sciences with a view to testing pierre leroy's watches at sea. a memoir in which he described the operations superintended by him in 1787 for connecting the observatories of paris and greenwich by longitude-determinations appeared in 1791. he visited england for the purposes of the work, and saw william herschel at slough. he completed his father's map of france, which was published by the academy of sciences in 1793. it served as the basis for the _atlas national_ (1791), showing france in departments. count cassini's _memoires pour servir a l'histoire de l'observatoire de paris_ (1810) embodied portions of an extensive work, the prospectus of which he had submitted to the academy of sciences in 1774. the volume included his _eloges_ of several academicians, and the autobiography of his great-grandfather, the first cassini. see j.f.s. devic, _histoire de la vie et des travaux de j.d. cassini_ (1851); j. delambre, _histoire de l'astronomie au xviii'e siecle_, pp. 309-313; _phil. mag._ 3rd series, vol. xxviii. p. 412; c. wolf, _histoire de l'observatoire de paris_ (1902), p. 234 et passim. (a. m. c.) cassiodorus (not _cassiodorius_), the name of a syrian family settled at scyllacium (squillace) in bruttii, where it held an influential position in the 5th century a.d. its most important member was flavius magnus aurelius cassiodorus senator (c. 490-585), historian, statesman, and monk. "senator" (not a title) is the name used by himself in his official correspondence. his father held the offices of _comes privatarum_ and _sacrarum largitionum_ (controller of the emperor's private revenue and the public exchequer) under odoacer, and subsequently attached himself to theodoric, by whom he was appointed _corrector_ (governor) of bruttii and lucania, and _praefectus praetorio_. the son at an early age became _consiliarius_ (legal assessor) to his father, and (probably in 507) _quaestor_, an official whose chief duty at that time consisted in acting as the mouthpiece of the ruler, and drafting his despatches. in 514 he was ordinary consul, and at a later date possibly _corrector_ of his native province. at the death of theodoric (526) he held the office of _magister officiorum_ (chief of the civil service). under athalaric he was _praefectus praetorio_, a post which he retained till about 540, after the triumphal entry of belisarius into ravenna, when he retired from public life. with the object of providing for the transmission of divine and human knowledge to later ages, and of securing it against the tide of barbarism which threatened to sweep it away, he founded two monasteries--vivarium and castellum--in his ancestral domains at squillace (others identify the two monasteries). the special duty which he enjoined upon the inmates was the acquisition of knowledge, both sacred and profane, the latter, however, being subordinated to the former. he also collected and emended valuable mss., which his monks were instructed to copy, and superintended the translation of various greek works into latin. he further amused himself with making scientific toys, such as sun-dials and water-clocks. as he is stated to have written one of his treatises at the age of ninety-three, he must have lived till after 580. whether he belonged to the benedictine order is uncertain. the writings of cassiodorus evince great erudition, ingenuity and labour, but are disfigured by incorrectness and an affected artificiality, and his latin partakes much of the corruptions of the age. his works are (1) historical and political, (2) theological and grammatical. 1. (a) _variae_, the most important of all his writings, in twelve books, published in 537. they contain the decrees of theodoric and his successors amalasuntha, theodahad and witigis; the regulations of the chief offices of state; the edicts published by cassiodorus himself when _praefectus praetorio_. it is the best source of our knowledge of the ostrogothic kingdom in italy (ed. t. mommsen in _monumenta germaniae historica: auctores antiquissimi_, xii., 1894; condensed english translation by t. hodgkin, 1886). (b) _chronica_, written at the request of theodoric's son-in-law eutharic, during whose consulship (519) it was published. it is a dry and inaccurate compilation from various sources, unduly partial to the goths (ed. t. mommsen in _mon. germ. hist.: auct. ant._ xi. pt. i., 1893). (c) panegyrics on gothic kings and queens (fragments ed. l. traube in _mon. germ. hist.: auct. ant._ xii.). 2. (a) _de anima_, a discussion on the nature of the soul, at the conclusion of which the author deplores the quarrel between two such great peoples as the goths and romans. it seems to have been published with the last part of the _variae_. (b) _institutiones divinarun et humanarunt litterarum_, an encyclopaedia of sacred and profane literature for the monks, and a sketch of the seven liberal arts. it further contains instructions for using the library, and precepts for daily life. (c) a commentary on the psalms and short notes (_complexiones_) on the pauline epistles, the acts, and the apocalypse. (d) _de orthographia_, a compilation made by the author in his ninety-third year from the works of twelve grammarians, ending with his contemporary priscian (ed. h. keil, _grammatici latini_, vii.). the latin translations of the _antiquities_ of josephus and of the ecclesiastical histories of theodoret, sozomen and socrates, under the title of _historia tripartita_ (embracing the years 306-439), were carried out under his supervision. of his lost works the most important was the _historia gothorum_, written with the object of glorifying the gothic royal house and proving that the goths and romans had long been connected by ties of friendship. it was published during the reign of athalaric, and appears to have brought the history down to the death of theodoric. his chief authority for gothic history and legend was ablavius (ablabius). the work is only known to us in the meagre abridgment of jordanes (ed. t. mommsen, 1882). complete works.--_editio princeps_, by g. fornerius (paris, 1579); j. garet (rouen, 1679; venice, 1729), reprinted in j.p. migne, _patrologia latina_, lxix., lxx. on cassiodorus generally, see _anecdoton holderi_, excerpts from a treatise of cassiodorus, edited by h. usener (bonn, 1877), which throws light on questions connected with his biography; t. mommsen, preface to his edition of the _variae_; monographs by a. thorbecke (heidelberg, 1867) and a. franz (breslau, 1872); t. hodgkin, _italy and her invaders_, iii. p. 280, iv. p. 348; a. ebert, _allgemeine geschichte der litteratur des mittelalters_ i.; teuffel-schwabe, _hist. of roman literature_ (eng trans.), s 483; g.a. simcox, _hist. of latin literature_ (1884); w. ramsay in smith's _dictionary of greek and roman biography_ j.b. bury's edition of gibbon's _decline and fall_, iv. 180, 522; r.w. church in the _church quarterly review_, x. (1880); j.e. sandys in _hist. of classical scholarship_ (2nd ed., 1906); a. olleris, _cassiodore, conservateur des livres de l'antiquite latine_ (paris, 1891); g. minasi, _m.a. cassiodoro ... ricerche storico-critiche_ (naples, 1895); and c. cipolla in _memorie della r. accademia delle scienze di torino_ (2nd ser. xliii. pt. 2, 1893); l.m. hartmann in pauly-wissowa's _realencyclopadie_, iii. pt. 2 (1899), with note on the musical section of cassiodorus' _institutions_ by c. von jan.