A B O U T

 

VIVARIUM, LLC is a new kind of online bookstore dealing in scholarly and collectible books bearing on ancient and medieval studies with an emphasis on religion. 

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As Rome fell in the period historians now refer to as Late Antiquity (200-700 AD, or

"Dark Ages"), the original Vivarium monastery in Italy preserved a library meant to promote, through careful study of divine and human sciences, the unity of mankind in God.

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This task involved building bridges between age-old divisions: Greek East and Latin West, Germanic and Roman, Jewish, Christian, and Pagan (Islam had not yet appeared), sacred and secular, and in the process bridged the ancient world to the medieval. Ex tenebris lux.

 

We hope to one day provide a tranquil space for visitors, whatever their profession, who seek for themselves understanding and a more perfect library.

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SUBJECTS: Ancient & Medieval Studies, Biblical, Monasticism, Theology, Philosophy, Church History, Art, Orthodoxy, Liturgy, and more.

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THOMAS KISER, MLIS, IOBA has more than a decade of full time experience in the second-hand academic and collectible book trade. He earned his BA-History from St. John's University in Collegeville, MN, completing an academic internship and seminar on medieval paleography & codicology at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, a monastic live-in program at St. John's Abbey, and traveled excessively during a semester abroad in Greece and Italy. After graduation Tom was hired by Thomas Loome, D.Th. of Stillwater, MN, and from St. Catherine University he earned his Master's Degree in Library and Information Science. In 2010 he founded Vivarium, LLC and has served full-time as proprietor, always with too much to do, with occasional employees since. 

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Interviewed by Fine Books Magazine (2016).

 

www.vivariumbooks.com | www.hmml.org | www.bookseminars.com | www.ioba.org

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