A handsomely bound manuscript of an anonymous, and original, French translation into prose of all five books of De Consolatione Philosophiae, one of the most famous works of late antiquity, written by Boethius in prison before 525 AD while he was awaiting execution for alleged treason. The Consolatio is in prose and verse; this translation is only in prose.
Boethius’ most important and best-known work, De consolatione in Latin, did not initially circulate; however, from the Carolingian period, and largely due to the work of Alcuin, it was hugely read in the Middle Ages and various commentaries were written and read in learned milieux. It also circulated in the vernacular, in French, German, Old English (attributed to King Alfred), English (Chaucer), Catalan, Dutch, and Spanish. In Latin the work was printed first in Savigliano in ca. 1471, and reprinted many times (sometimes with commentary), followed quickly by printed editions in the vernacular.
The French version in particular was a cornerstone of French literature, from the time of the medieval translations by Simon de Freing and Jean de Meung onwards. Almost every generation had a version, and seventeenth-century French translations include those by the erstwhile Jesuit Rene´ de Cerisiers (1603-1662; translation published 1640; he also translated various works of St. Augustin) and Nicolas Regnier, who translated the proses as prose and the verses into verse, as is the case with most versions. However as the 17th century continued (in the words of Pierre Courcelle) ‘on peut dire qu’au xviie sie`cle l’ouvrage se meurt’ (‘La survie compare´e des ’Confessions’ Augustiniennes et de la ‘Consolation’ Boe´cienne’’ in Bolgar, R.R. ed., Classical Influences on European Culture A.d. 500-1500, (Cambridge: CUP: 1971, p. 138)). With the text increasingly falling out of fashion after 1600, the present manuscript is thus somewhat unusual for its time, and appears to be an original translation.
Provenance: 1. Bookplate of Lucius Wilmerding (1880-1949), lot 108 in part II of the sale of his library New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1950-51, attributing the binding to Boyet. Old pencil number ‘4796’ on fly-leaf; pasted in is a slip cut out from an old French catalogue (no. 1475) also attributing binding to Boyet.
Occasional very light browning or ink corrosion.
