PROLEGOMENA Introduction.

Cassiodorus greatly extols the usefulness of this book, who in his book on music (p. 573) says:

"We also find Censorinus, who wrote to Q. Cerellius about his birthday, where he discoursed on the discipline of music or other not-to-be-neglected parts of mathesis mathematics/learning, for it is not read without profit, so that the things themselves are more deeply stored in the mind through frequent meditation."

Therefore, because Censorinus (p. 23, 15) calls music the science of modulandi modulating/singing correctly, Cassiodorus immediately turns it to his own purpose, and the same author in his book on geometry (p. 577) says:

"Censorinus," he says, "in the book which he wrote to Q. Cerellius, described with curious distinction the very spaces of the sky and the circuit of the earth marked out by the number of stadia; if anyone wishes to review this, he will recognize many mysteries of the philosophers where he reads them" (cf. Censor. p. 31, 13 sqq.).

And indeed, even later among learned men, the reputation of Censorinus for accurate doctrine and excellent reliability always remained. If I cite the great names of Joseph Scaliger and Ideler, all will be satisfied. Nor can we help but gratefully acknowledge that Censorinus alone, or more than others, has passed on to us knowledge of many matters and writers, although this merit of his would undoubtedly be less if we were permitted to return to his sources or rather his primary source. For there can be no doubt that Varro is the author whom Censorinus followed almost everywhere; since he mentions him very often himself, it can still be proved today in other places that he used the authority of Varro and derived a small supply from the vast riches of that most learned man.