The Consolation of Philosophy (ed. 2)
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 16 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~100,000 words · 490 passages
Cite this work
- APABoethius. (n.d.). De consolatione philosophiae (CSEL 67) [The Consolation of Philosophy (ed. 2)]. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/boethius/de-consolatione-philosophiae-csel-67
- MLABoethius. De consolatione philosophiae (CSEL 67) [The Consolation of Philosophy (ed. 2)]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/boethius/de-consolatione-philosophiae-csel-67.
- ChicagoBoethius. De consolatione philosophiae (CSEL 67) [The Consolation of Philosophy (ed. 2)]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/boethius/de-consolatione-philosophiae-csel-67.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
In his cell, awaiting execution, a man fallen from grace is visited by Philosophy in person, who reminds him why Fortune is a wheel and where the good that no one can take from you lies.
Context and history
Written around 524 in a Pavia prison, as Boethius awaited execution by Theodoric on a charge of treason — the vertiginous fall of one of the most powerful men in the empire. It is the last great book of the ancient world and the first of the medieval: a Christian who, facing death, consoles himself with pagan reason and never once cites Scripture. It was among the most read books of the whole Middle Ages, translated by King Alfred, by Chaucer and by Queen Elizabeth I; the bridge by which classical philosophy crossed into Europe.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
cum scriptorum pedestrium tum poetarum satis multos attulerunt Murmellius (Migne LXIII 885 sqq.), Schepss, Henricus Huettinger. 1 ) Fontibus eos tantum locos similes inserui. quorum Boethium memorem fuisse pro certo habeo velut Martiani Capellae. De reliquis hic ad editiones commentationesque relegare satis mihi visum est. Quid enim quaeso inde redundare potest. quod exempli gratia Boethius I m. n, C caelo aperto, Seneca bis aperto caeh (aethere), Boethius III m. vrn. 17 et Seneca jwhim stelliferum habet, Tityos et apud Boethium III m. xn, 39 et apud Horatium Carm. III 4, 77 inducitur? De Seneca rectius quam Sitzmannum (nullus fere est versus in Boethio, qui non e Seneca depromptus esse videatur) Huettingerum iudicasse puto (1902, 72: haud scio an parum recte Peiper opinetur omnes illos Senecae locos revera Boetio ob oculos rersatos esse); cf. Indicem locorum et metra, quae Peiper p. 219 sqq. e Senecae tragoediis repetit. IIL DE INTEBPRETIBVS ET COMMENTATORIBVS CONSOLATIONIS. Ad Peiperi Prnlegomena, 1 ) Ueberwegii librum iam allatum, Groeberi et Pauli enchiridia (GrundriB der roman. Klingner 88, 4: quoniam Chrutianum cnm Juitte rt opera Otrnloyirn ecripiUie iam eonetat, ium oput ut ad Stoieot cnu/ugere. Bonnaud, Spcculum IV 201, 4 Xeoplatonicos Stoicorum doctrinam moralem secutos esse, pliysieani reieeisso ruonet. ') Stuolia in Bottii carmina eollata. Programm. gymn. vct. RatUboncnsis 1900 et 1002; v. F. Wilhelm, Maximianut n Boethiut. Mus. Rhen. LXII 091 sqq. et editionem Adriani a Forti Scudo infra adferendam. *) P. Xl.Isqq., Llsqq.; addas G. Hnet, La prmiire edition de la Cont. de Boece en Heerlandait. Melanges Havet. Paris 1895, 561 (agitur de inferioris Germaniae interpretatione primum u. 1485. Gandavi impressa, qune cum interpretatione Flamandica transcripU est in codice quodam Par. X. acqu. 1496) et Thomas in Soticet et extrail* det mtt. de la BiU. Nat. 41 (magistri Petri Parisiensis versio Francogallica et commentarius in codice Vat.…