Folio Archives 366: The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius 1998
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1wcarter
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius 1998
This is a beautifully presented and bound book.
Boethius was born in Rome and lived between about 480 and 524 AD. He was a Roman magistrate, statesman, senator and consul, and a scholar who translated many of the Greek classics into Latin. His translations are now the only source for many of these texts. He wrote extensively on subjects as diverse as Christianity, mathematics and music.
Despite his successes, Boethius became unpopular among members of the Ostrogothic court for denouncing government corruption and a perceived religious heresy. After publicly defending his fellow consul Caecina Albinus from conspiracy charges, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death by Theodoric in about 523. While jailed, and awaiting to be executed, he wrote this book.
Philosophy is personified as a woman with whom he has discussions about life, justice, fortune, good and evil, divinity and death. He was tortured and bludgeoned to death in 524 at the age of about 44. He is considered to be a martyr by the Catholic Church.
I found the five page preface by Brian Keenan and the 21 page introduction by the translator V.E. Watts to be fascinating, but the consolation itself was a bit of a slow slog that I had to read intermittently amongst other lighter books.
The Consolation is divided into five books which are 20 to 40 pages in length in this volume, which has a total of 208 pages. There are seven bound-in colour plates by Jean Colombe from a 1476 edition of the Consolation.
The book is printed on pale cream Inveresk Wove paper, has mottled cream endpapers, and is bound in cream vegetable parchment. The cover is printed and blocked with a multicolour design by David Eccles. The red slipcase measures 23.7x16.9cm.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
This is a beautifully presented and bound book.
Boethius was born in Rome and lived between about 480 and 524 AD. He was a Roman magistrate, statesman, senator and consul, and a scholar who translated many of the Greek classics into Latin. His translations are now the only source for many of these texts. He wrote extensively on subjects as diverse as Christianity, mathematics and music.
Despite his successes, Boethius became unpopular among members of the Ostrogothic court for denouncing government corruption and a perceived religious heresy. After publicly defending his fellow consul Caecina Albinus from conspiracy charges, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death by Theodoric in about 523. While jailed, and awaiting to be executed, he wrote this book.
Philosophy is personified as a woman with whom he has discussions about life, justice, fortune, good and evil, divinity and death. He was tortured and bludgeoned to death in 524 at the age of about 44. He is considered to be a martyr by the Catholic Church.
I found the five page preface by Brian Keenan and the 21 page introduction by the translator V.E. Watts to be fascinating, but the consolation itself was a bit of a slow slog that I had to read intermittently amongst other lighter books.
The Consolation is divided into five books which are 20 to 40 pages in length in this volume, which has a total of 208 pages. There are seven bound-in colour plates by Jean Colombe from a 1476 edition of the Consolation.
The book is printed on pale cream Inveresk Wove paper, has mottled cream endpapers, and is bound in cream vegetable parchment. The cover is printed and blocked with a multicolour design by David Eccles. The red slipcase measures 23.7x16.9cm.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2Son.of.York
This is indeed a fine volume, one of my favourites.
The Consolation of Philosophy has had such enduring importance that it’s been translated into English by none other than King Alfred the Great (Old English), Geoffrey Chaucer (Middle English), and Queen Elizabeth I (Early Modern English), among many others.
The Lady Fortune and her Wheel (no, the Wheel of Fortune is not a television game show!) appear in many subsequent works, such as in Hamlet:
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
In general synod take away her power;
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!"
Hamlet II.2.
For a fine (and short) performance, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta9_16_um1k
The Consolation of Philosophy has had such enduring importance that it’s been translated into English by none other than King Alfred the Great (Old English), Geoffrey Chaucer (Middle English), and Queen Elizabeth I (Early Modern English), among many others.
The Lady Fortune and her Wheel (no, the Wheel of Fortune is not a television game show!) appear in many subsequent works, such as in Hamlet:
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
In general synod take away her power;
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!"
Hamlet II.2.
For a fine (and short) performance, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta9_16_um1k
3TristanJohn
Also cited quite a bit by Ignatious J. Rielly in A Confederacy of Dunces:
“Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel,' Ignatius belched, 'Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity.”
― John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces.
“Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel,' Ignatius belched, 'Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity.”
― John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces.
5Betelgeuse
I have this Folio Society edition of Boethius, it is one of my favorites. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of free will.
7Cat_of_Ulthar
It's been a long time since I shoved some music down everybody's throats but, ignoring the obvious Orff choice, how about some George Benjamin?
Palimpsests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FVj1rzKImQ
Palimpsests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FVj1rzKImQ
