Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae. [The Consolations of Philosophy].

Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus. De Consolatione Philosophiae. [The Consolations of Philosophy]. Colonia [Cologne], per Henricum Quentell [Heinrich Quentell], anno gratie 1497 pridie kalendas Januarij [31 December 1497]. c. 20 x 14 cm. a6, A1-A6, a1-k6, two unnumbered leaves, l1-z6, ?1-?6, A1-E6, F1-F4. Missing A1 & s3. Title page with large woodcut device depicting a medieval scholastic scene. Extensive early annotations (see images). Flexible covers made from pages of other book of the period (vellum?). See images. The boards and end papers are made of four individual pieces. Three of them appear to be from Anton Koberger’s ‘Ninth German Bible’ (Biblia Germanica 1483). The spine and front cover appear to be a bible commentary of the period. Inside custom made clamshell box with morocco spine label and gilt title. Very good condition. Dust dulled. Binding coming lose. Edges age darkened.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (c. 480-524 AD), 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 23 October.
Boethius was born in Rome a few years after the forced abdication of the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus. A member of the Anicii family, he was orphaned following the family’s sudden decline and was raised by Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, a later consul. After mastering both Latin and Greek in his youth, Boethius rose to prominence as a statesman during the Ostrogothic Kingdom, becoming a senator by age 25, a consul by age 33, and later chosen as a personal advisor to Theodoric the Great.
In seeking to reconcile the teachings of Plato and Aristotle with Christian theology, Boethius sought to translate the entirety of the Greek classics for Western scholars. He published numerous transcriptions and commentaries of the works of Nicomachus, Porphyry, and Cicero, among others, and wrote extensively on matters concerning music, mathematics, and theology. Though his translations were unfinished following an untimely death, it is largely due to them that the works of Aristotle survived into the Renaissance.
Despite his successes as a senior official, Boethius became deeply unpopular among other members of the Ostrogothic court for denouncing the extensive corruption prevalent among other members of government. After publicly defending fellow consul Caecina Albinus from charges of conspiracy, he was imprisoned by Theodoric around the year 523. While jailed Boethius wrote On the Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise on fortune, death, and other issues which became one of the most influential and widely reproduced works of the Early Middle Ages. He was tortured and executed in 524, becoming a martyr in the Christian faith by tradition.
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 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrogothic_Italy>, 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 imperilled by the vicissitudes of fortune.
Boethius engages with the nature of predestination and free will, the problem of evil and the “problem of desert”, 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 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.