#de consolatione philosophiae

[jezabelofthenorth]

Despite the intensive nature of the timetable, the hours of cramming were for Elizabeth a labour of love, and she never lost the delight in scholarship and study which had been instilled in her as a girl. After ɹve years on the throne she was still in the habit of devoting the period after dinner to re-reading her favourite passages from the classics, and one of her former tutors noted approvingly that there were not six gentlemen at court who bestowed “so many hours, daily, orderly and constantly for the increase of learning and knowledge as doth the Queen’s Majesty herself”. After receiving bad news from France in 1593, she soothed herself by working on a translation of Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae, and she also translated extracts from Tacitus, Plutarch and Horace, “for her private exercise”. The creative energies which had been released by her education also found an outlet in her artful manipulation of her own tongue. Having been trained to judge a book not solely on content but to appreciate stylistic nuances and elegance of expression, she did not see language simply as a means of communication but as an artistic medium, and it was this that inspired the singular cadences and ornate phraseology of her mature speech

Elizabeth I, Anne Somerset

[whencyclopedes]

Boecio: ¿el primero de los medievales?

Anicio Manlio Severino Boecio (en torno al 477-524/525) fue un erudito en la Antigüedad tardía encarcelado y ejecutado por Teodorico (reinó del 493-526 d.C.), pero que luego fue idolatrado por los intelectuales medievales. Su obra más famosa fue De consolatione philosophiae (La consolación de la Filosofía) y se lo puede considerar como el pensador que creó un puente entre dos épocas: el último de los romanos, el primero de los escolásticos.

Sigue leyendo...

[catt-nuevenor]

On follow up to the other post, this is why I loathe the modern typeset versions of ancient texts:

Highlighted word: deorlingum

The above is from King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Boethius De consolatione philosophiae: with a literal English translation, notes, and glossary

Now compare to this:

This is from Cotton MS Vitellius A XV manuscript and is a part of the Beowulf poem.

Now, maybe I'm just getting grouchy in my early 30's, but I can parse the second text far easier than I can the first.

Hwæt we gardena in gear dagum þeod cynninga þrym gefrimon huða æþelingal elle

The translation of this is tricky without including the rest of the passage, and I'm still pretty new to all the cases and eccentricities of Old English Poetry, but it's the opening lines to Beowulf. Have a google and see just how many alternate translations there are.

A literal translation of the words above leads to this:

What We spear Danes in year days the king great understood prey prince...

Still prefer the old text to the new typeface, though.

[lionofchaeronea]

Checking off another item on my list of "Works I should have read long ago" by reading Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy (De consolatione philosophiae), the great work of spiritual self-healing that in many respects marks the transition from the classical to the medieval worlds. I'm developing more and more of an interest in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages*, and Boethius is powerful evidence that the great classical heritage didn't simply evanesce into nothingness when Rome fell to the "barbarians".

*Assuming one can clearly distinguish between the two periods, which is highly debatable. One must always be careful about imposing modern notions of periodization onto the past; it's unlikely that the average Italian peasant woke up one day and said "Huh. April 12. We must be medieval by now."

[makies123]

The most miserable misfortune is to have been happy once.

Boethius: De Consolatione Philosophiae

[zero-love]

“Every man is powerful with respect to that which he controls. He has no power with respect to what he does not control.”

- Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae IV

[whencyclopedfr]

Boèce, le Premier des Médiévaux?

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (alias Boèce, c. 477-524/525 de notre ère) était un érudit de l'Antiquité tardive qui fut emprisonné et exécuté par Théodoric (r. de 493 à 526 de notre ère), mais qui fut ensuite idolâtré par les intellectuels médiévaux. Son œuvre la plus célèbre est De consolatione philosophiae (Consolation de la philosophie), et il peut être considéré comme le penseur qui jeta un pont entre deux âges: le dernier des Romains, le premier des scolastiques.

Lire la suite...

[ignis-dalai]

Se Dio esiste, da dove viene il male? E se non esiste, da dove viene il bene?»

(Boezio, De consolatione philosophiae, I, prosa IV)

[saint-rouge]

It is not that a man of virtue is honoured because of high office, but rather that the office is honoured because of his virtue.

Boethius

[earlyenglishsuggestion]

Produce an extremely loose translation of Boethius

[tagitables]

... hold on high the sphere of heaven with never bending neck... Overcome the earth, and you the stars shall crown."

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius

[turangalila]

[Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius] Heu, quam praecipiti [(fol. 442r) CA Gg. V. 35, University of Cambridge, University Library]

Heu, quam praecipiti mersa profundo / mens hebet et propria luce relicta / tendit in externas ire tenebras / terrenis quotiens flatibus aucta / crescit in immensum noxia cura! / Hic quondam caelo liber aperto / suetus in aetherios ire meatus / cernebat rosei lumina solis, / uisebat gelidae sidera lunae / et quaecumque uagos stella recursus / exercet uarios flexa per orbes / comprensam numeris uictor habebat; / quin etiam causas unde sonora / flamina sollicitent aequora ponti, / quis uolat stabilem spiritus orbem / uel cur hesperias sidus in undas / casurum rutilo surgat ab ortu, / quid ueris placidas temperet horas / ut terram roseis floribus ornet, / quis dedit ut pleno fertilis anno / autumnus grauidis influat uuis / rimari solitus atque latentis / naturae uarias reddere causas: / nunc iacet effeto lumine mentis / et pressus grauibus colla catenis / decliuem que gerens pondere uultum / cogitur, heu, stolidam cernere terram. // [Boethius. De Consolatione Philosophiae. I : M2]

_ Boethius: Songs Of Consolation – Metra from 11th-century Canterbury Sequentia (2018, Glossa – GCD922518)

[upennmanuscripts]

Manuscript Monday: LJS 347 - De consolatione philosophiae

Manuscript Monday: LJS 347 – De consolatione philosophiae

Dot Porter, Curator, Digital Research Services at the University of Pennsylvania Library, offers a video orientation to LJS 347, a 14th-century English copy of Boethius’ philosophical dialogue in five books between a narrator and Lady Philosophy which deals with ideas of fate, fortune, and the relationship between free will and divine omniscience, and which was one of the most important…

[panatmansam]

The Consolation of Philosophy

This is the title of a very famous book in Latin "De consolatione philosophiae" by the philosopher and Statesman Boethius. He writes as he waits to get his head chopped off by the Goths for treason. He spends that time bemoaning the vanity of every material thing a man can possess as well as immaterial things such as power, respect, beauty, admiration and he boils it down to what is left a man of reason as he sits ALONE awaiting his fate?

He concludes that it is REASON. He scribbles furiously in his prison. writing, writing, writing. He has nobody to correspond with so he makes up a female and names her Philosophy and they talk about freewill, predestination and all those things that philosophers, freethinkers and atheists love to talk about today.

Then, guess what? The Gothic king comes back with his ruling and Boethius, genius of his age, has his head chopped from his shoulders with an ax.

The same will happen to us friend. Ax, heart attack, stray meteor with our name on it? We all behave as if life will go on forever. The Dhammapada makes this point well.

People, other than the wise, do not realize, "We in this world must all die," (and, not realizing it, continue their quarrels). The wise realize it and thereby their quarrels cease. Dhammapada 6

[whencyclopedia]

Boethius: First of the Medievals?

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 477-524/525) was a scholar in Late Antiquity who was imprisoned and executed by Theodoric (r. 493-526 CE) but was later idolised by medieval intellectuals. His most famous work was De consolatione philosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy), and he can be held up as the thinker who bridged two ages: the last of the Romans, first of the scholastics.

Continue reading...

[crazy-so-na-sega]

Infatti, a ogni rivolgimento della sorte, la più malaugurata delle sciagure è quella di essere stati felici.

-Boezio, De consolatione philosophiae