The encyclopedic collections of some of the last of the scholars of antiquity, like Cassiodorus, Capella, Boëthius, and the _Etymologies_ of Isidore of Seville. =3. The Books most influential philosophically upon the time.= These were not necessarily the books most widely read, but the epoch-making books, so to speak. They were as follows:―― Augustine, _City of God_. Boëthius, _Consolation of Philosophy_. Aristotle, _De Interpretatione_ and the _Categories_ in translation by Boëthius. _Pseudo-Dionysius_, translated by Erigena. Porphyry, _Isagoge_ translated by Boëthius, an introduction to Aristotle’s _Categories_. =The Three Periods of the Middle Ages.= 1. Early Period, 476–1000. 2. Transitional Period, 1000–1200. 3. Period of Classic Scholasticism, 1200–1453. There is one great natural division line of the Middle Ages, the year 1200. At this time the surging of the western peoples eastward in the Crusades was at its height, and the works of Aristotle were coming into western Europe from the East. These events mark a change in the political and intellectual situation in Europe. But this change did not take place suddenly. There are intervening two centuries that are indeed transitional, but at the same time are animated by a distinct and independent philosophical motive. These two centuries may be set apart as a period, different from the earlier and the later periods. We shall call these three periods the Early Period, the Transitional Period, and the Period of Classic Scholasticism. The Early Period takes us from the fall of old Rome (476) to the birth of modern political Europe (1000). It is a period of religious faith governed by the theology of Augustine. Mysticism has no independent following, but on the contrary rules within the church. The Christian principle of individual personality and the Greek Platonic conception of universal realities are not fused, but they are held without arousing controversy. This is because the human reason has no standard code, nor does it yet feel the need of one. The only two philosophers, Augustine and Erigena, of the period are animated by neo-Platonism. The Transitional Period extends from the birth of political Europe (1000) to the arrival of the works of Aristotle (about 1200). This epoch is one of logical controversy, in which the Christian and the Greek motives conflict. This controversy gives rise to the first group of great schoolmen, who discuss the reality of general ideas in their application to dogma. Mysticism still rules the churchman, but now in a modified form. Plato has become the standard of the reason in orthodox circles and Aristotle in those inclined to heresy, but as yet only fragments of the works of either are known.