''On the Consolation of Philosophy'' (), often titled as ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' or simply the ''Consolation'', is a philosophical work by the Roman philosopher

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...

. Written in 523 while he was imprisoned and awaiting execution by the

Ostrogothic The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

King

Theodoric Theodoric is a Germanic given name. First attested as a Gothic name in the 5th century, it became widespread in the Germanic-speaking world, not least due to its most famous bearer, Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Overview The name w ...

, it is often described as the last great Western work of the Classical Period. Boethius's ''Consolation'' heavily influenced the philosophy of

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, as well as

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and early

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

Christianity.

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

placed Boethius the "last of the Romans and first of the Scholastics" among the doctors in his Paradise (see '' The Divine Comedy'') (see also below).

Description

''On the Consolation of Philosophy'' was written in AD 523 during a one-year imprisonment Boethius served while awaiting trial—and eventual execution—for the alleged crime of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

under the

King Theodoric the Great. Boethius was at the very heights of power in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, holding the prestigious office of '' magister officiorum'', and was brought down by treachery. This experience inspired the text, which reflects on how evil can exist in a world governed by God (an example of theodicy), and how happiness is still attainable amidst fickle fortune, while also considering the nature of happiness and God. In 1891, the academic Hugh Fraser Stewart described the work as "by far the most interesting example of prison literature the world has ever seen." Boethius writes the book as a conversation between himself and a female personification of philosophy, referred to as "Lady Philosophy". Philosophy consoles Boethius by discussing the transitory nature of wealth, fame, and power ("no man can ever truly be secure until he has been forsaken by Fortune"), and the ultimate superiority of things of the mind, which she calls the "one true good". She contends that happiness comes from within, and that virtue is all that one truly has because it is not imperiled by the vicissitudes of fortune. Boethius engages with the nature of

predestination Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby Go ...

and

free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...

, the

problem of evil The problem of evil is the philosophical question of how to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with an Omnipotence, omnipotent, Omnibenevolence, omnibenevolent, and Omniscience, omniscient God.The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ...

and the "problem of desert",

human nature Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of Thought, thinking, feeling, and agency (philosophy), acting—that humans are said to have nature (philosophy), naturally. The term is often used to denote ...

virtue A virtue () is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be morality, moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the "good of humanity" and thus is Value (ethics), valued as an Telos, end purpos ...

, and

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

. He speaks about the nature of free will and

determinism Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...

when he asks whether God knows and sees all, or whether man has free will. On human nature, Boethius says that humans are essentially good, and only when they give in to "wickedness" do they "sink to the level of being an animal." On justice, he says criminals are not to be abused, but rather treated with sympathy and respect, using the analogy of doctor and patient to illustrate the ideal relationship between prosecutor and criminal.

Outline

''On the Consolation of Philosophy'' is laid out as follows: * Book I: Boethius laments his imprisonment before he is visited by Philosophy, personified as a woman. * Book II: Philosophy illustrates the capricious nature of Fate by discussing the "wheel of Fortune"; she further argues that true happiness lies in the pursuit of wisdom. * Book III: Building on the ideas laid out in the previous book, Philosophy explains how wisdom has a divine source; she also demonstrates how many earthly goods (e.g., wealth and beauty) are fleeting at best. * Book IV: Philosophy and Boethius discuss the nature of good and evil, with Philosophy offering several explanations concerned with

evil Evil, as a concept, is usually defined as profoundly immoral behavior, and it is related to acts that cause unnecessary pain and suffering to others. Evil is commonly seen as the opposite, or sometimes absence, of good. It can be an extreme ...

events and why the wicked can never attain true happiness. * Book V: Boethius asks Philosophy about the role Chance plays in the order of everything. Philosophy argues that Chance is guided by Providence. Boethius then asks Philosophy about the compatibility of an omniscient God and

Interpretation

In the ''Consolation'', Boethius answered religious questions without reference to Christianity, relying solely on natural philosophy and the Classical Greek tradition. He believed in the correspondence between faith and reason. The truths found in Christianity would be no different from the truths found in philosophy. In the words of Henry Chadwick, "If the ''Consolation'' contains nothing distinctively Christian, it is also relevant that it contains nothing specifically pagan either... tis a work written by a Platonist who is also a Christian." Boethius repeats the Macrobius model of the Earth in the center of a spherical cosmos. The philosophical message of the book fits well with the religious piety of the Middle Ages. Boethius encouraged readers not to pursue worldly goods such as money and power, but to seek internalized virtues. Evil had a purpose, to provide a lesson to help change for good; while suffering from evil was seen as virtuous. Because God ruled the universe through Love, prayer to God and the application of Love would lead to true happiness.Sanderson Beck (1996). The Middle Ages, with their vivid sense of an overruling fate, found in Boethius an interpretation of life closely akin to the spirit of Christianity. The ''Consolation'' stands, by its note of fatalism and its affinities with the Christian doctrine of humility, midway between the pagan philosophy of

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger ( ; AD 65), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, a dramatist, and in one work, a satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca ...

and the later Christian philosophy of consolation represented by Thomas à Kempis. The book is heavily influenced by

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and his dialogues (as was Boethius himself). Its popularity can in part be explained by its Neoplatonic and Christian ethical messages, although current scholarly research is still far from clear exactly why and how the work became so vastly popular in the Middle Ages.

Influence

From the Carolingian epoch to the end of the Middle Ages and beyond, ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' was one of the most popular and influential philosophical works, read by statesmen, poets, historians, philosophers, and theologians. It is through Boethius that much of the thought of the Classical period was made available to the Western Medieval world. It has often been said Boethius was the "

last of the Romans The term Last of the Romans () has historically been used to describe a person thought to embody Culture of ancient Rome, the values of ancient Rome, ancient Roman civilization – values which, by implication, became extinct on his death. It ha ...

and the first of the Scholastics". Translations into the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

were done by famous notables, including King Alfred (

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

), Jean de Meun (

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

), Geoffrey Chaucer (Middle English), Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth I (Early Modern English), Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston (English, 1695–1696), and Notker Labeo (Old High German). Other English translators include George Colville (1556), Henry Rosher (H. J.) James (1897), Walter John (W. J.) Sedgefield (1899), and Richard H. Green (1962). Boethius's ''Consolation of Philosophy'' was translated into Italian by Alberto della Piagentina (1332), Anselmo Tanso (Milan, 1520), Lodovico Domenichi (Florence, 1550), Benedetto Varchi (Florence, 1551), Cosimo Bartoli (Florence, 1551) and Tommaso Tamburini (Palermo, 1657). Found within the ''Consolation'' are themes that have echoed throughout the Western canon: the female figure of wisdom that informs Dante, the ascent through the layered universe that is shared with Milton, the reconciliation of opposing forces that find their way into Chaucer in ''

The Knight's Tale "The Knight's Tale" () is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales''. The Knight is described by Chaucer in the " General Prologue" as the person of highest social standing amongst the pilgrims, though his manners and c ...

'', and the Wheel of Fortune so popular throughout the Middle Ages. Citations from it occur frequently in

's '' Divina Commedia''. Of Boethius, Dante remarked: "The blessed soul who exposes the deceptive world to anyone who gives ear to him." Boethian influence can be found nearly everywhere in

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's poetry, e.g. in ''

Troilus and Criseyde ''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Cressida, Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in ''rhyme ro ...

'', ''

'', '' The Clerk's Tale'', '' The Franklin's Tale'', ''

The Parson's Tale "The Parson's Tale" is the final tale of Geoffrey Chaucer's fourteenth-century poetic cycle '' The Canterbury Tales''. Its teller, the Parson, is a virtuous priest who takes his role as spiritual caretaker of his parish seriously. Instead of t ...

'' and '' The Tale of Melibee'', in the character of Lady Nature in '' The Parliament of Fowls'' and some of the shorter poems, such as ''Truth'', ''The Former Age'' and ''Lak of Stedfastnesse''. Chaucer translated the work in his '' Boece''. The Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola used some of the text in his choral work '' Canti di prigionia'' (1938). The Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe quoted parts of it in his opera or music theatre work '' Rites of Passage'' (1972–73), which was commissioned for the opening of the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

but was not ready in time. Tom Shippey in '' The Road to Middle-earth'' says how "Boethian" much of the treatment of evil is in Tolkien's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

''. Shippey says that Tolkien knew well the translation of Boethius that was made by King Alfred and he quotes some "Boethian" remarks from Frodo, Treebeard, and Elrond. Boethius and ''Consolatio Philosophiae'' are cited frequently by the main character Ignatius J. Reilly in the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning '' A Confederacy of Dunces'' (1980). It is a prosimetrical text, meaning that it is written in alternating sections of

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and metered verse. In the course of the text, Boethius displays a virtuosic command of the forms of Latin poetry. It is classified as a Menippean satire, a fusion of allegorical tale, platonic dialogue, and lyrical poetry. Edward Gibbon described the work as "a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of

or Tully." In the 20th century, there were close to four hundred manuscripts still surviving, a testament to its popularity. Of the work,

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

wrote: "To acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalised in the Middle Ages." In 2024, under the high patronage of the European Parliament, the Italian composer Mirco De Stefani published ''Cori di Boezio'', for twelve male voices a cappella, on seven poems from ''De Consolatione Philosophiae'', in the 15th centenary of the work.

Reconstruction of lost songs

Hundreds of Latin songs were recorded in

neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff (music), staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the gener ...

s from the ninth century through to the thirteenth century, including settings of the poetic passages from Boethius's ''The Consolation of Philosophy''. The music of this song repertory had long been considered irretrievably lost because the notational signs indicated only melodic outlines, relying on now-lapsed oral traditions to fill in the missing details. However, research conducted by Sam Barrett at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, extended in collaboration with Medieval music ensemble Sequentia, has shown that principles of musical setting for this period can be identified, providing crucial information to enable modern realisations. Sequentia performed the world premiere of the reconstructed songs from Boethius's ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in April 2016, bringing to life music not heard in over 1,000 years; a number of the songs were subsequently recorded on the CD ''Boethius: Songs of Consolation. Metra from 11th-Century Canterbury'' (Glossa, 2018). The detective story behind the recovery of these lost songs is told in a documentary film, and a website launched by the University of Cambridge in 2018 provides further details of the reconstruction process, bringing together manuscripts, reconstructions, and video resources.

References

Sources

* * Boethius
''The Consolation of Philosophy''
*
Tr. Anonymous
(London, James Flesher), 1664, Early English Books Online Collections. *
Tr. lover of truth and virtue
(Oxford, H. Hall) 1674, Early English Books Online Collections. *
Tr.
Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston, (London, J.D.) 1695, Early English Books Online Collections. *
Tr. Philip Ridpath
(London) 1785

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. *
Tr. Henry Rosher James
(London, Elliot Stock) 1897,

. ** Tr. Walter John Sedgefield (Oxford)
18991900

. *
Tr. Wilbraham Villiers (W. V.) Cooper
(Carlton House, NY & Aldine House London) 1902,

. *
Tr.
Edward Kennard Rand (R. & R. Clark, Limited) 1918, 1953, Loeb Classical Library,

. ** Tr. Richard H. Green, (Library of the Liberal Arts), 1962. ** Tr. Victor Watts, (Penguin Classics), 2000. ** Tr. Joel C. Relihan, (Hackett Publishing), 2001. ** Tr. P. G. Walsh, (Oxford World's Classics), 2001. * Cochrane, Charles Norris., '' Christianity and Classical Culture'', 1940, . * Henry Chadwick, ''Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology and Philosophy'', 1990, * . * . * Relihan, Joel C., ''Ancient Menippean Satire'', 1993, * Relihan, Joel C., ''The Prisoner's Philosophy: Life and Death in Boethius's Consolation, '' 2007, . * Sanderson Beck
''The Consolation of Boethius''
an analysis and commentary. 1996. * '' The Cambridge History of English and American Literature''
Volume I Ch.6.5: ''De Consolatione Philosophiae''
1907–1921.

External links

*
''Consolatio Philosophiae''
from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

, HTML conversion, originally translated by H. R. James, London 1897.
''Consolatio Philosophiae''
in the original Latin with English comments at the University of Georgetown
''First Performance in 1000 years: lost songs from the Middle Ages are brought back to life''
* Medieval translations int
Old English
by

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

Old High German
by Notker Labeo
Middle (originally Old) French
by Jean de Meun, an
Middle English
by

*
''The Consolation of Philosophy''
many translations and commentaries from

''The Consolation of Philosophy''
Translated by: W.V. Cooper : J.M. Dent and Company London 1902 The Temple Classics, edited by Israel Golancz M.A. Online reading and multiple ebook formats at Ex-classics. {{DEFAULTSORT:Consolation Of Philosophy, The 524 6th-century books in Latin Christian apologetic works Dialogues Prose texts in Latin Medieval philosophical literature Prison writings Theodicy Visionary literature