Dionysius Exiguus, a computist, uses a true zero in tables alongside Roman numerals, but as a word, nulla meaning nothing, not as a symbol." When division produced zero as a remainder, nihil, also meaning nothing, was used. These medieval zeros were used by all future computists (calculators of Easter). "Computus (Latin for computation) is the calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. The name has been used for this procedure since the early Middle Ages, as it was one of the most important computations of the age." This is the root of the modern word "computer."

The codex called the Littera Florentina or Codex Florentinus is written during these years. It is the closest survivor to an official version of the Digesta or Pandectae portion of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the digest of Roman law promulgated by Justinian I in 530–533. "The codex, of 907 leaves, is written in the Byzantine-Ravenna uncials characteristic of Constantinople, but which has recently been recognized in legal and literary texts produced in Alexandria and the Levant. Close scrutiny dates the manuscript between the official issuance in 533 and 557, making it an all-but contemporary and all-but official source.

"Marginal notes suggest that the codex was in Amalfi—part of the Byzantine territory in Italy governed by the Exarchate of Ravenna in the 6th century— and that it passed to Pisa in the 12th century; the codex was part of the war booty removed from Pisa to Florence after the war of 1406. The manuscript became one of Florence's most treasured possessions. It was only shown to very important persons. Scholarly access was difficult. It took more than three centuries before a reliable edition of the Littera Florentina was finally made available. Nowadays two facsimile editions are at the disposal of scholars."

"The importance of the manuscript lies in the fact that is a almost unique witness of the original Justinian Digest. Most medieval manuscripts of the Digest have a substantially different text. Its sudden reappearance in the late eleventh or early twelfth century has been much debated by legal historians."

According to tradition that cannot be substantiated, sometime around 560 the Irish missionary monk, Saint Columba becomes involved in a dispute with Saint Finian over a psalter. "Columba copied the manuscript at the scriptorium under Saint Finian, intending to keep the copy. Saint Finnian disputed his right to keep the copy. The dispute eventually led to the pitched Battle of Cut Dremhe in 1561, during which many men were killed. (Columba's copy of the psalter has been traditionally associated with the Catnach [Battler] of St. Columba). As penance for these deaths, Columba suggested that he work as a missionary in Scotland to help convert as many people as had been killed in the battle. He also promised to move from Ireland and never again to see his native island."

Having failed to found a university in Rome similar to the Museum at Alexandria, Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, former secretary to Theodoric, the Ostrogothic rule of Rome, forms a school and monastery at Vivarium in italy. There he has monks produce a vast pandect of the bible called the Codex Grandior. He also has them copy out nine volumes of his work, Institutiones Divinarum et Saecularium Litterarum. "Along with detailed instruction for a religious routine, the author told how manuscripts should be handled, corrected, copied, and repaired, and included what amounted to an annotated bibliography of the best lierature of the time. " (Harris, History of Libraries in the Western World 4th ed [1999] 91).

"The twin structure of the Vivarium was to permit cenobitic monks and hermits to coexist. The library of Cassiodorus was a last effort, at the very close of the Classical period, to bring Greek learning to Latin readers, a concern shared by his contemporary Boethius. In the end both efforts failed, the library was dispersed and lost, though it was still active ca. 630. . .. By then, however, Theodoric's Gothic kingdom was undermined by Christian forces from within and Lombard invaders from without."

British Library, Harley 1775, a mixture of the Vulgate and Old Latin translation of the Gospels, is called "source Z" in critical studies of the Latin New Testament. . . . The manuscript was owned by Jules Cardinal Mazarin. In the early 18th century it was in the French Royal Library. It was stolen along with several other manuscripts in 1707 by the renegade priest and adventurer, Jean Aymon. It was purchased in Holland by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (d. 1724). It was sold by the widow of Edward Harlet, 2nd Earl of Oxford and their daughter to Parliament as part of the Harleian collection which was one the founding collections of the British Museum, the library portion of which became the British Library.