Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

(480 to 524)

I shall translate into Latin every work of Aristotle's that comes into my hands, and I shall write commentaries

on all of them; any subtlety of logic, any depth of moral insight, and perception of scientific truth that Aristotle has set down, I shall arrange, translate, and illuminate by the

light of a commentary. And I shall also translate and comment upon all Plato's dialogues and put them into Latin form. Having completed this not unworthwhile project, I

shall bring the thought of Aristotle and Plato somehow into harmony, and show that these two philosophers are not at

odds in everything as a great many people suppose.

[from Boethius's Comentarii in Librum Aristotelis Perihermeneias, an earlier text thatn the Consolation; quoted in Seth Lerer, Boethius and Dialogue: Literary Method in the Consolation of Philosophy (Princeton, 1985), p.14]

Raphael, The School of Athens (1510-11; fresco; Vatican, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome)

Jean de Meun offers his translation of the Consolation to Margaret of England

Universitätsbibliothek, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena; after 1476

Boethius On the Consolation of Philosophy (with commentary by Nicholas Trivet)

Glasgow, MS Hunter 374 (V.1.11); Italy: 1385

Folio 49v from Boethius' On the Consolation of Philosophy with Trivet’s commentary

Glasgow, MS Hunter 374 (V.1.11) 

DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE, TRANSLATED BY JOHN WALTON (1410) Schoyen collection, MS 615

(England, c. 1420-25)

Consolation of PhilosophyParis, BnF, end of fifteenth century

Lady Philosophy and the prisoner

Boethius and Lady Philosophy

Lady Philosophy and the prisoner

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, clm 2599 (13th c.)

Lady Philosophy (University of Leipzig MS 1253; 13th c.)

“Everything that is known is comprehended not according to its own nature, but according to the ability to know of those who do the knowing”

Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy V.pr.4

Intelligence divine--knows forms

Reason human—knows species

Imagination mobile animal--knows shape without matter

Sensation immobile animal-- knows shape with matter

Youtube Boethius clip:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rAWPevQFq4

Boethian moments in Troilus and Criseyde I-III

TC 1.729-35; cp. Boethius 1 pr.4 (Green, p. 9; riverside, p. 401)

TC 1.840-54; cp. Boethius 2 pr. 1 (Green, p. 22; Riverside, p. 409)

and 2 pr. 3 (Green, p. 26; Riverside, p. 411)

TC 1.857-58; cp. Boethius 1 pr. 4 (Green, p. 9; Riverside, p. 401)

TC 3.813-40; cp. Boethius 2 pr. 4 (Green, pp. 29-30; Riverside, p. 413)

TC 3.1625-28; cp. Boethius 2 pr. 4 (Green, p. 27; Riverside, p. 411)

TC 3.1744-71; cp. Boethius 2 m. 8 (Green, p. 41; Riverside, p. 420)