Details

Standardized Title:

De consolatione philosophiae

Other Title:

Boetio de consolatione philosophiae

Subjects:

Philosophy, Ancient -- Early works to 1800.
Philosophy, Ancient.
Philosophy and religion -- Early works to 1800.
Philosophy and religion.
Consolation -- Early works to 1800.
Consolation.
Happiness -- Early works to 1800.
Happiness.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Dialogues.
Poems.
Annotations.
Reading lists.
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin with Spanish notes at the end.

Biography/History:

Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus) served as magister officiorum under the Ostrogoth King Theodoric the Great before he was imprisoned for treason in 523 for suspected collaboration with the Byzantine Empire. He was executed a year later, after writing De consolatione philosophiae in prison, and is considered a martyr.

Summary:

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 philosophical texts of the medieval period, includes marginal notations drawn from Nicholas Trivet; and a list of books in a personal library being taken to Salamanca (f.86v).

Contents:

1. f.2r-85v: De consolatione philosophiae / Boethius.
2. f.86v: [Book list].
3. f.87r-87v: Notes in Spanish and Latin.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f.1r).
Collation: Paper, 87; 1¹⁴ 2¹² 3¹²(-2) 4-5¹² 6¹⁴ 7¹⁴(-2, -13); [1-87]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; quires signed a-g in modern pencil; catchword on last page of each quire, lower right verso. Link to collation model at end of record.
Layout: Written in 17 long lines or 17 lines of single or double column poetry, frame-ruled in lead.
Script: Written in a Gothic book hand, with marginal and interlinear annotations in late Gothic cursive, and several italic hands.
Decoration: Elaborate manicules in red and brown ink (f. 16r, 17r-v, 18v, 23v, 25r, 26r), decorated initials (f. 20v, 30r) with guide letters for missing initials elsewhere, catchwords encircled by sketch of a fish (f. 37v), elaborate pen flourishes on tall letters (f. 82r-85v).
Binding: Contemporary red vellum reinforced with scrap paper and parchment.
Origin: Written in Spain, possibly Aragon (Dean and Armistead), in 1466.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Laurence Witten (New Haven), 1959.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 29-30 (Ms. Latin 129).

Publications about:

Second item: Dean, Ruth J., and Armistead, Samuel G. A Fifteenth-Century Spanish Booklist. Library Chronicle, v. 40 (1974), p. 73-87.
Flyleaves: Dean, Ruth J., and Armistead, Samuel G. Jottings from a Monastic Kitchen. La Coronica, v. 13 no. 1(Fall 1984), p. 130-136

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1081.

Contributor:

Trivet, Nicholas, 1258?-1328, commentator.

OCLC:

182540524

Web link:

Collation model

Access Restriction:

Access to this item is subject to staff review.