On the Consolation of Philosophy

Last updated

The Consolation of Philosophy
Boethius, Consolatio philosophiae (French).jpg
Page from a 15th century French manuscript
Author Boethius
Translators
Language Latin
Subject Fate, Christian theology
Publication date
524
Published in English
Mid-14th century (Middle English)
082.1
Original text
The Consolation of Philosophy at Latin Wikisource
Translation The Consolation of Philosophy at Wikisource

On the Consolation of Philosophy (Latin : De consolatione philosophiae), [1] often titled as The Consolation of Philosophy or simply the Consolation, is a philosophical work by the Roman philosopher Boethius. Written in 523 while he was imprisoned and awaiting execution by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric, it is often described as the last great Western work of the Classical Period. Boethius' Consolation heavily influenced the philosophy of late antiquity, as well as Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity. [2] [3]

Contents

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 under the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great. Boethius was at the very heights of power in Rome, 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 (the problem 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." [4]

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 and free will, the problem of evil and the "problem of desert", [5] human nature, virtue, and justice. He speaks about the nature of free will and determinism when he asks whether God knows and sees all, or does man have 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:

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. [6] In the words of Henry Chadwick, "If the Consolation contains nothing distinctively Christian, it is also relevant that it contains nothing specifically pagan either...[it] is a work written by a Platonist who is also a Christian." [7]

Boethius repeats the Macrobius model of the Earth in the center of a spherical cosmos. [8]

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. [9] 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 and the later Christian philosophy of consolation represented by Thomas à Kempis. [10]

The book is heavily influenced by Plato and his dialogues (as was Boethius himself). [10] Its popularity can in part be explained by its Neoplatonic [ citation needed ] [11] 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

Lady Fortune with the Wheel of Fortune in a medieval manuscript of a work by Boccaccio Fortune wheel (15c., French).jpg
Lady Fortune with the Wheel of Fortune in a medieval manuscript of a work by Boccaccio

From the Carolingian epoch [12] 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 and the first of the Scholastics". [3]

Translations into the vernacular were done by famous notables, including King Alfred (Old English), Jean de Meun (Old French), Geoffrey Chaucer (Middle English), Queen Elizabeth I (Early Modern English) and Notker Labeo (Old High German). [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] 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, and the Wheel of Fortune so popular throughout the Middle Ages.

Citations from it occur frequently in Dante's Divina Commedia . Of Boethius, Dante remarked: "The blessed soul who exposes the deceptive world to anyone who gives ear to him." [18]

Boethian influence can be found nearly everywhere in Geoffrey Chaucer's poetry, e.g. in Troilus and Criseyde , The Knight's Tale , The Clerk's Tale , The Franklin's Tale , The Parson's Tale 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 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 . 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. [19]

Miniatures of Boethius teaching and in prison from a 1385 Italian manuscript Consolation of philosophy 1385 boethius images.jpg
Miniatures of Boethius teaching and in prison from a 1385 Italian manuscript

Boethius and Consolatio Philosophiae are cited frequently by the main character Ignatius J. Reilly in the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces (1980).

It is a prosimetrical text, meaning that it is written in alternating sections of prose 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 Plato or Tully." [20]

In the 20th century, there were close to four hundred manuscripts still surviving, a testament to its popularity. [21]

Of the work, C. S. Lewis wrote: "To acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalised in the Middle Ages." [22]

Reconstruction of lost songs

Hundreds of Latin songs were recorded in neumes 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, [23] 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. [24] 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. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boethius</span> Roman senator and philosopher of the early 6th century

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius, was a Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the translation of the Greek classics into Latin, a precursor to the Scholastic movement, and, along with Cassiodorus, one of the two leading Christian scholars of the 6th century. The local cult of Boethius in the Diocese of Pavia was sanctioned by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1883, confirming the diocese's custom of honouring him on the 23 October.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eternity</span> Endless time or timelessness

Eternity, in common parlance, is an infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas sempiternity corresponds to infinite duration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Knight's Tale</span> Part of the Canterbury Tales

"The Knight's Tale" is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Franklin's Tale</span> Part of the Canterbury Tales

"The Franklin's Tale" is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It focuses on issues of providence, truth, generosity and gentillesse in human relationships.

<i>Troilus and Criseyde</i> 1380s poem by Geoffrey Chaucer

Troilus and Criseyde is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in rime royale and probably completed during the mid-1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long poem, it is more self-contained than the better known but ultimately unfinished The Canterbury Tales. This poem is often considered the source of the phrase: "all good things must come to an end" (3.615).

<i>The Kingis Quair</i>

The Kingis Quair is a fifteenth-century Early Scots poem attributed to James I of Scotland. It is semi-autobiographical in nature, describing the King's capture by the English in 1406 on his way to France and his subsequent imprisonment by Henry IV of England and his successors, Henry V and Henry VI.

Boece is Geoffrey Chaucer's translation into Middle English of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. The original work, written in Latin, stresses the importance of philosophy to everyday life and was one of the major works of philosophy in the Middle Ages. As well as using philosophy to understand and deal with hardship, it is also an attempt by Boethius to improve the minds of the people in 6th century Rome by introducing them to Greek philosophy.

<i>Rota Fortunae</i> Symbol of fate in medieval and ancient philosophy

In medieval and ancient philosophy the Wheel of Fortune, or Rota Fortunae, is a symbol of the capricious nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel: some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls. The metaphor was already a cliché in ancient times, complained about by Tacitus, but was greatly popularized for the Middle Ages by its extended treatment in the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius from around 520. It became a common image in manuscripts of the book, and then other media, where Fortuna, often blindfolded, turns a large wheel of the sort used in watermills, to which kings and other powerful figures are attached.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notker Labeo</span> Benedictine monk (950–1022)

Notker Labeo, also known as Notker the German or Notker III, was a Benedictine monk active as a scholar and teacher. He was the first commentator on Aristotle active in the Middle Ages and translated the works of earlier Latin writers such as Boethius and Martianus Capella. Notker is also attributed the authorship of five short essays on music.

Seneca's Consolations refers to Seneca’s three consolatory works, De Consolatione ad Marciam, De Consolatione ad Polybium, De Consolatione ad Helviam, written around 40–45 AD.

Flavius Symmachus was a Roman politician during the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medieval philosophy</span> Philosophy during the medieval period

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval philosophy, understood as a project of independent philosophical inquiry, began in Baghdad, in the middle of the 8th century, and in France and Germany, in the itinerant court of Charlemagne in Aachen, in the last quarter of the 8th century. It is defined partly by the process of rediscovering the ancient culture developed in Greece and Rome during the Classical period, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine with secular learning. This is one of the defining characteristics in this time period. Understanding God was the focal point of study of the philosophers at that time, Muslim and Christian alike.

1st millennium BC in music – 1st millennium in music – 11th century in music

Peter of Kastl was a Benedictine monk who very probably composed a translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.

Caecina Decius Faustus Albinus was a Roman politician during the reign of Theodoric the Great. He held the consulship with Eusebius in 493. Albinus is best known for being identified with the senator whom Boethius defended from accusations of treasonous correspondence with the Eastern Roman Empire by the referandarius Cyprianus, only to have Cyprianus then accuse Boethius of the same crime.

John Walton, also John Capellanus was an English Augustinian canon, known as a poet and translator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consolation</span> Psychological comforting after a trauma

Consolation, consolement, and solace are terms referring to psychological comfort given to someone who has suffered severe, upsetting loss, such as the death of a loved one. It is typically provided by expressing shared regret for that loss and highlighting the hope for positive events in the future. Consolation is an important topic arising in history, the arts, philosophy, and psychology.

The Old English Boethius is an Old English translation/adaptation of the sixth-century Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, dating from between c. 880 and 950. Boethius's work is prosimetrical, alternating between prose and verse, and one of the two surviving manuscripts of the Old English translation renders the poems as Old English alliterative verse: these verse translations are known as the Metres of Boethius.

Alastair J. Minnis is a Northern Irish literary critic and historian of ideas who has written extensively about medieval literature, and contributed substantially to the study of late-medieval theology and philosophy. Having gained a first-class B.A. degree at the Queen's University of Belfast, he matriculated at Keble College, Oxford as a visiting graduate student, where he completed work on his Belfast Ph.D., having been mentored by M.B. Parkes and Beryl Smalley. Following appointments at the Queen's University of Belfast and Bristol University, he was appointed Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of York; also Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies and later Head of English & Related Literature. From 2003 to 2006, he was a Humanities Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University, Columbus, from where he moved to Yale University. In 2008, he was named Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English at Yale.

Reynaud or Renaut de Louhans or Louens was a Dominican translator from Poligny, in the Kingdom of France, active in the 1330s.

References

  1. Knowles, David (1967). "Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus", The Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Paul Edwards, v. 1, p. 329.
  2. The Consolation of Philosophy (Oxford World's Classics), Introduction (2000)
  3. 1 2 Dante 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).
  4. Stewart, Hugh Fraser (1891). Boethius, An Essay. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons. p. 109. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  5. King, Peter (2013). "Boethius on the Problem of Desert". In Pasnau, Robert (ed.). Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–22. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661848.003.0001. ISBN   9780199661848.
  6. Chadwick, Henry (1998). "Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus (c.480-525/6)". In Craig, Edward (ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge. The Opuscula sacra regard faith and reason as independent but parallel and compatible ways of attaining to higher metaphysical truths, and the independent validity of logical reasoning is also an underlying presupposition throughout De consolatione.
  7. Henry Chadwick, Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology and Philosophy, 1990, ISBN   0-19-826549-2
  8. S.C. McCluskey, Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe, (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1998), pp. 114, 123.
  9. Sanderson Beck (1996).
  10. 1 2 Ward, A. W.; Waller, A. R., eds. (1907). "VI. Alfred and the Old English Prose of his Reign, §5. De Consolatione Philosophiae". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance. Cambridge University Press.
  11. Marenbon, John (2003). Boethius. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 11–13. ISBN   9780195134070.
  12. Gibson, Margaret T. (1982). "Boethius in the Carolingian Schools". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 32: 54–56. doi:10.1017/S0080440100017333. ISSN   0080-4401.
  13. Cropp, Glynnis M. (1 January 2012). "Boethius in Medieval France: Translations of the De consolatione philosophiae and Literary Influence". In Kaylor, Noel Harold; Phillips, Philip Edward (eds.). A Companion to Boethius in the Middle Ages. Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition. Vol. 30. pp. 319–355. doi:10.1163/9789004225381_010. ISBN   9789004183544.
  14. Relihan, Joel C. (January 2000). "Review of: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. ISSN   1055-7660.
  15. "The National Archives - Homepage" . Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  16. "The Fate of Fortune in the Early Middle Ages: The Boethian Tradition. Jerold C. Frakes". Speculum. 66 (2): 403–405. April 1991. doi:10.2307/2864168. ISSN   0038-7134. JSTOR   2864168.
  17. Notker (Labeo) (1986). Boethius, "De consolatione philosophiae": Consolation, Book I and II (in Latin). M. Niemeyer.
  18. Dante The Divine Comedy. "Blessed souls" inhabit Dante's Paradise, and appear as flames. (see the note above).
  19. Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth, pg. 140, ISBN   0-395-33973-1, (1983).
  20. Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
  21. Friedman, John (2000). Orpheus in the Middle Ages. Syracuse University Press. p. 91. ISBN   0815628250.
  22. C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature, 1964, ISBN   0-521-47735-2, pg. 75
  23. Barrett, Sam (2013). The Melodic Tradition of Boethius' "De consolatine philosophiae" in the Middle Ages. Kassel: Bärenreiter.
  24. "First performance in 1,000 years: 'lost' songs from the Middle Ages are brought back to life". University of Cambridge. 23 April 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  25. "Restoring Lost Songs: Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy".

Sources