Martianus Capella 5th cent. a.d.
Cassiodorus c. 530 a.d.
Boëthius died 525.
At the break-up of the Roman Empire some fragments of classical learning were saved from the wreck, mainly in the text-books of the “heathen” writers, Capella, Cassiodorus, and Boëthius. These were preserved by the Church, now the only repository of learning. The secular instruction given to churchmen included astronomy, for while the “Trivium” comprised the three elementary sciences of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic, the “Quadrivium” comprised the four advanced sciences of Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry, and Music. But only a mere smattering of the “Quadrivium” was taught in this period, and scarcely more of astronomy than was necessary for determining the date of Easter. The intimate knowledge and ingenious theories of the Greeks concerning the celestial motions interested no one any more.
Charlemagne 732-814.
Isidore died 636.
Bede c. 673-735
Fergil, 745.
Dicuil, 825
From the seventh century, however, the ignorance began to be less dense. Charlemagne established many schools, and there were enlightened monks here and there—Saint Isidore of Seville, the Venerable Bede, and Irish scholars like Fergil and Dicuil—whose teachings show that the elements of astronomy as taught by the Greeks were not totally forgotten everywhere. From the beginning of the ninth century all famous monasteries had schools for laymen as well as for monks.