The Consolation of Philosophy

V.

ON THE EDITIONS AND VERSIONS OF THE CONSOLATION.

Boethius' book On the Consolation of Philosophy was first printed by Johannes Glim of Savigliano (it seems) around the year 1471, then at Nuremberg in 1473, with an added German translation, the author of which is not known (see Goedeke, Grundriß Outline I² 443), and an exposition falsely ascribed to Thomas Aquinas (see p. XIII). In the fifteenth century, it was published more than sixty times in total, both alone and, from the year 1491 onward, among the other writings of Boethius; however, we do not have certain knowledge of which codices were used for these editions. I note that the annotations of Johannes Murmellius, whose first edition appeared in Cologne in 1511 at the press of Quentel and the second in Deventer in 1514 at the press of Albert Pafraet, and those of Rudolf Agricola, were repeated in LXIII 886 sqq. (M.). In the preface (see LXIII 542 M.) of the 1546 Basel edition of Boethius' works, prepared by Heinrich Loriti (Glareanus), three codices are mentioned: those of John Kerr, abbot of St. George in the Black Forest, of Bonifacius Amerbach, and one from the editor's library. The editions of Theodor Pulmann (whose text has been frequently repeated) were sent to the press in 1562 and 1580 at Antwerp by Christophe Plantin. In 1607 at Antwerp, Johannes Bernart used his own codex (the Berchemianum) and that of Justus Lipsius, while at Hanau, Theodor Sitzmann issued the Consolation from the Erfurt and Rittershusian manuscripts; it is said that a copy of the Bernart edition, collated with the manuscripts of Richard Bentley, is preserved in the British Museum. René Vallin (Lyons 1656) earned merit by examining five Parisian codices and crafting a commentary not to be disregarded. The Cally edition for the use of the Dauphin (Paris 1680, 1695) depends on this, and it was repeated in vol. LXIII 547 sqq. M. Polycarpus Leyser, having used three Helmstädt codices, inserted the poems into his History of the Poets of the Middle Ages (Halle 1721). I have not seen the Glasgow edition of the Consolation from 1751, to which readings from the Glasgow and Oxford codices are said to have been added. Theodor Obbarius (Jena 1843) used certain codices of little value and compared the old editions, augmenting his work with what F. C. Freytag had gathered from versions in his Consolation of Philosophy, from the Latin of Boethius (Riga 1794).

1) no. 4511—4572 (Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke).