On the Institution of Arithmetic

The two books of Arithmetic by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, the most illustrious and renowned man, ex-consul, ordinary, and patrician, to the patrician Symmachus.

A large decorative woodcut drop-cap initial 'I' within a square border is decorated with intricate foliage and scrollwork motifs.

In the giving and receiving of gifts, it is considered right that the duties—especially among those who hold themselves in high regard—be esteemed, if it is clearly evident that nothing more liberal could be brought forth as a discovery, and that nothing could be received that is embraced with more pleasant benevolence. Considering this myself, I have brought not the dull burdens of riches, by which, when the thirst for possession glows, nothing is more prepared for wickedness, and when the conquering mind has trampled them underfoot, nothing is cheaper for merit; but rather those things which I have gathered from the wealth of Greek literature and transformed into the Latin treasury of speech. For the rationale of my own work will be established for me if the things I have elicited from the doctrines of wisdom are approved by the judgment of the wisest. You see, therefore, how the result of such great labor awaits only your examination, and that it must not go forth into the public ears unless it relies on the confirmation of a learned opinion. In which nothing should seem surprising, since this work, which pursues the inventions of wisdom, does not rely on the judgment of the author, but on that of another. For the matter of reason is weighed by its own instruments when it is forced to undergo the judgment of a prudent man. But for this little gift, I do not establish the same protections that threaten other arts. For—

hardly any knowledge is so absolute in all its parts and so free from need that it does not desire the assistance of other arts as well. For in carving statues from marble, the labor of cutting the mass is one thing, the reasoning of forming the image is another, and the gloss of the polished work does not await the hand of the same craftsman. But the hand of the carpenter provides the panels joined for paintings, the wax gathered from rustic observation, the pigments searched for by the skill of the merchants, and the linen worked by laborious weaving—all provide a manifold material. Is not the same also seen in the instruments of war? One sharpens spearpoints with arrows, another hammers a sturdy breastplate upon a black anvil. Yet another purchases the coverings for a raw shield to be fastened upon a circle of his own labor. Thus, a single art is perfected by many arts. But the completion of my labor runs toward a much easier outcome. For you alone will place your hand upon the final work, in which it is not necessary to labor over the consensus of those who judge. For however much this judgment is well-cultivated by many arts, it is nevertheless accumulated by one examination. You may therefore test how much labor, drawn out through long periods of leisure, has added to my work in this study. Whether the speed of an experienced mind encompasses the flights of subtle things, the meager starvation of my speech may barely suffice for explaining those things which are hindered by obscure sentences. In this matter, the gains of another’s judgment are also sought by me. Since you are most skilled in both literatures, you can prescribe, by your mere pronouncement, how much those who lack Greek speech should dare to judge regarding me. But I am not—

Cessation