Consolatio Philosophae

• Illo Humphrey | PhD (2004) | HDR (2014) : Université Paris X-Nanterre •
• Mediævalist | Musicologist | Proto-Philologist | Concert-Baritone •
• Trilingual Simultaneous Interpreter (French A • English A • German C) •
• Research Associate | EA 4593 CLARE - LaPRIL | Université Bordeaux Montaigne •

• BOETHIUS.
His Influence on the European Unity of Culture:
from Alcuin of York (†804) to Thierry of Chartres (†1154) •
• Nordhausen | Deutschland | Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH | 2010 | 2012 | 237 Seiten | 35 Euros •
• http://www.bautz.de/shop/product_info.php?products_id=653&osCsid=m1ijcst5hvufkij9qpggjgttn6 •
• ISBN: 978-3-88309-603-2 •

• English Abstract •

[1] Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius (*Rome, ca. 480 – †Pavia, ca. 524) was one of the powerful bridges of education and general culture between European Antiquity and the Middle Ages. He was the ideal receptacle (ἡ ὑποδοχή | ἡ χώρα) for the threefold scientific-philosophical-ethical Tradition of Knowledge which led up to him, and the ideal reservoir and source (τὸ ὑποδοχεῖον | ἡ κρήνη) for the thirty-three generations of Masters and pupils which followed him. Given the completeness of his general culture and education, that is to say his humanitas, and eruditio institutioque in bonas artes, Boethius can thus be considered the Father of western mediæval scientific-philosophical thought, and indeed his research gave to the post-Roman period the key to understanding the substance of true ideas through the study of fundamental concepts, such as: animae generatio (genesis of the soul-consciousness), substantia numeri (essence of number), principalitas unitatis (primacy of the number 1, that is to say the absolute Unity), continuo proportio superparticularis (regime of the octave), sensuum perceptio et cognitio (sens perception and the cognitive process), summa bona or quattuor uirtutes animae (the wise management of happiness and suffering, of justice and injustice), decem categoriae or decem praedicamenta (the ten categories), quinque uoces (the five universals), et caetera. These important concepts were taught within the framework of the sevenfold canon of the artes liberales (liberal arts), which were divided into two distinct sections, namely: Quadruvium (ars arithmetica• ars musica• ars geometrica• ars astronomica) and Trivium (ars grammatica• ars dialectica-ars logica• ars rhetorica) •

[2] The veritable goal of this study, that is to say its true aim, is to bring better into focus the influence of the research and teachings of the Platonist Boethius on the European post-Roman civilisation between the last quarter of the 8th century and the first half of the 12th century, period during which Europe structured its basic educational, scientific, philosophical and ethical Unity of Culture, and during which took place the slow gestation of the first European universities, created in Italy, France, England, Spain, Germany, etc. Boethius, thus, comes to the forefront as one of the most important sources for the new Carolingian and post-Carolingian branches of the scientific–philosophical Tradition of Knowledge as of 782, the year in which Alcuinus Euboricensis (Alcuin of York, ca. 730 – Tours, 804), invited by Charlemagne, assumed his new functions as Praeceptor of the Schola palatina in Aachen, down to 1154, the year in which the last of the great dynasty of paeceptores of the Schola Carnotensis died, that is to say Theodoricus Carnotensis seu Brito, that is to say: Thierry of Chartres or Thierry the Breton •

[3] The intellectual and cognitive gestation periods of the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries were well-rooted in the very reliable corpus provided by the works of Boethius, and by their multiple glosses and commentaries, corpus which possessed very high standards for civilization management and civilization development. Thus, given the quality of his Opera omnia and his persona, the spirit of Boethius remained alive in his tangible and intangible intellectual patrimony, allowing him, posthumously, to exert a very positive influence on the founders of mediaeval universities of the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. In this perspective, we can now better measure the legacy of Boethius within the framework of the European general culture from Alcuin of York to Thierry of Chartres, and, above all his subtle and fundamental influence on the European Unity of Culture, which contributed largely to the birth of the Studia generalia, or Uniuersitas magistrorum ac scholarium uel discipulorum [discipularumque], that is to say the European mediæval university, a fundamentally humanitarian institution born out of the mediæval urban society of the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries •

[4] Nota bene: This publication on Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius includes an Introduction with Bibliography (Boethius: Opera omnia | Boethius: Prosopgraphia | Boethius: Hagiographia), a Prologue, 12 chapters, an Epilogue, and 5 Appendices, namely: Bibliography (Boethius and the Liberal Arts), Index-Catalogue of the cited Manuscripts (128 primary sources), General Index-Glossary, Greek Index-Glossary, Index of the 14 Descriptiones (Illustrations, Diagrams, Figures, Charts). The 14 Descriptiones include two glossaries of 9th-century Boethian glosses in tironian notes, that is to say Latin stenography [p. 15, p. 104], and one glossary of 9th-century notae sententiarum, that is to say cross-reference signs or annotation signs [p. 108-110], which accompany the 9th-century Boethian glosses in an important family of 9th-century manuscripts containing the treatise Boethii De institutione musica libri quinque, namely, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fonds latin: 7200 [origin: Laon – Soissons (?) via Fleury (?)] • 7297 [origin: Fleury – Auxerre (?)] • Orléans 293 (247) [origin: Fleury (?)] • Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reginensis latinus 1638 [origin: Fleury (?)], cf. Marco Mostert, The Library of Fleury, Hilversum, 1989 • IH | ih • Explicit •
• http://www.colloquiaaquitana.com/?page_id=28 •

• Illo Humphrey, PhD-HDR •
• Mediävist | Musikwissenschaftler | Proto-Philologe •
• Médiéviste | Musicologue | Proto-Philologue •
• Mediævalist | Musicologist | Proto-Philologist •

• BOETHIUS.
His Influence on the European Unity of Culture:
from Alcuin of York (†804) to Thierry of Chartres (†1154) •
• Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH | Nordhausen | Deutschland | Allemagne | Germany | 2010 | 2012 | 237 Seiten | 35 Euros •
• http://www.bautz.de/shop/product_info.php?products_id=653&osCsid=m1ijcst5hvufkij9qpggjgttn6 •
• ISBN: 978-3-88309-603-2 •

• Inhaltsverzeichnis | Table des Matières | Table of Contents •

Abbreviations - p. 6
Introduction - p. 7
Latin Stenography | Critical Glossary | Bibliography - p. 15
Bibliography:
• Boethii Opera omnia - p. 16
• Boethii Prosopographia - p. 21
• Boethii Hagiographia - p. 28
Prologue: Boethius. Powerful Bridge between Antiquity
and the Middle Ages - p. 41
Chapter 1: Boethius and Alcuin of York - p. 49
Chapter 2: Boethius and Amalarius - p. 61
Chapter 3: Boethius and Charles II “the Bald” - p. 71
Chapter 4: Boethius and Iohannes Scottus Eriugena - p. 79
Chapter 5: Boethius and the Cognitive Process - p. 91
Chapter 6: Boethius and Aurelianus Reomensis - p. 113
Chapter 7: Boethius and Hucbaldus Elnonensis - p. 119
Chapter 8: Boethii Consolatio Philosophiae - p. 137
Chapter 9: Boethius and Hrotsvitha Gandersheimensis - p. 157
Chapter 10:
(A) Boethius and Gerbertus Aureliacensis - p. 167
(B) Boethius and Abbo Floriacensis - p. 171
(C) Boethius and Notker Labeo seu Teutonicus - p. 172
Chapter 11: Boethius and Fulbertus Carnotensis - p. 175
Chapter 12: Boethius and Theodoricus Carnotensis - p. 179
Epilogue: The Legacy of Boethius - p. 187
Bibliography: Boethius and the Liberal Arts - p. 195
Index (Manuscripts) - p. 219
Index (General) - p. 226
Index (Greek) - p. 232
Index (Descriptiones) - p. 234
Dedication - p. 235
Acknowledgements - p. 237
Supplementary Bibliography (15-III-2016): 238
Notitia brevis | Abstracts (15-III-2016):                    239-244

• Illo Humphrey | PhD-HDR • Explicit  •

H.-D. Saffrey distinguished two directions within pagan Neoplatonism.  One of them led to the development of theology as science by Iamblichus and its first treatise, The Platonic Theology of Proclus.  He then looked beyond Proclus to Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, and, in particular to his treatise on The Divine Names, not only to indicate that the theological science of Iamblichus and Proclus had a Christian future, but also to suggest the extent of its influence, until the thirteenth century in the West, an influence usually clandestine, but, nonetheless, generally pervasive.
Unless viewed within this particular Neoplatonic context, where “the oracles, held to be divine, are included among the authorities of philosophy” and where “philosophical texts themselves, in the first place those of Plato, are raised up to the level of divine revelations” , The Divine Names is completely enigmatic.  A central puzzle is that, though Dionysius makes Biblical revelation the absolutely necessary condition for the activity of naming God and the source of the particular names ascribed to the deity, he clearly both derives many names from Proclus, and also orders the whole treatise according to a Neoplatonic logic primarily, though not exclusively, Procline.  What is presented as Christian and Biblical is in logic and content also a continuation of pagan Neoplatonism.
At about the same time that Dionysius’ reflections on his reading of Proclus were producing his peculiar treatise on The Divine Names,  a Latin Christian author who had also read Proclus,  was writing a book puzzling in the opposite way. After Boethius the next great meeting of these two opposing but interacting Neoplatonic traditions is in Eriugena and here the Procline side is above all encountered through the Pseudo-Dionysius, just as the other is primarily known in Augustine.  I will conclude by briefly comparing the large scale structure of Eriugena’s Periphyseon  and Boethius’ Consolation.
I wish to attend to the reversal of the direction of movement in the two works.  Whereas the direction in the Consolation is from multiplicity to simplicity, a gathering of the whole self, including dividing reason, into intellect unified at the still divine center, the direction in the Periphyseon is from the uncreated and unnamable simplicity above being, through intellect, reason, imagination and sense, as created and creative means, to the created material cosmos, from which the return to the uncreated is effected.
A communication to the Twelfth International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, August 21 -26, 1995.

La figure de Boèce et de ses oeuvres est très présente dans le "Speculum maius" de Vincent de Beauvais (c. 1250), compilation philosophique et théologique. L'enquête est menée sur toutes les occurrences, en tenant compte tant des citations d’oeuvres authentiques que de l’attribution à Boèce d’oeuvres pseudépigraphiques. 
Dans le "Speculum maius", la figure de Boèce est dominée par l’utilisation du "De consolatione philosophiae", dont Vincent de Beauvais ne fait pas un usage chrétien. Il considérait Boèce selon l’opinion médiévale majoritaire, comme un chef-d’œuvre littéraire à en juger par les passages cités à la manière d’un florilège. La plupart se situent après le fameux chant 9 du livre III, dans la partie philosophique et métaphysique. La réponse à la question de l’équilibre entre une conception littéraire ou philosophique de Boèce réside dans les petits commentaires que fait l’ "actor" du "Speculum maius". Il n’est pas fait allusion à la figure légendaire de Boèce ou à sa représentation comme martyr de la foi. A cette étude sur la "Consolation de Philosophie s’ajoute un examen de la part considérable que prend Boèce dans l’enseignement musical du "Speculum maius", et des mentions des oeuvres logiques et des « petites oeuvres » de Boèce, comme le "De diffinitionibus".

У овом раду се разматрају аспекти стваралаштва Порфирија
Тирског, посвећени појединцу и заједници у временима великих изазова.
У светлу Порфиријеве преданости васпитавању млађих филозофа читамо дело Посланица Марцели, у ком видимо ауторова размишљања и савете о борби појединца са недаћама тражењем утехе у филозофији и враћању предачким обичајима. На основу Порфиријевих записа о традиционалној религији и култним радњама, закључујемо да враћање предачким обичајима за њега представља приближавање златном добу људског рода. Напослетку, кроз Порфиријев преглед људских жртава посматрамо примере поступака помоћу којих се заједница штити у тренуцима највеће опасности.

La retórica clásica de la consolatoria adquiere identidad en textos como las Tusculanas de Cicerón o las Consolaciones de Séneca el Joven. Esta tradición continúa un amplio y nutrido recorrido durante la Edad Media y la Temprana Modernidad en textos tan difundidos como La consolación de la filosofía de Boecio. Bien en forma de epístola, diálogo o tratado, en la consolatoria el estoicismo grecorromano que abogaba por una consciencia permanente de la muerte y por un comportamiento riguroso como método para enfrentarse a las adversidades de la vida se funde con la concepción cristiana del “más allá” como refugio para las penas del mundo. Así mismo, el tema sobre el desprecio del mundo, expuesto en textos como el De Contemptu mundi de Inocencio III o el De remediis utriusque fortunae de Francisco Petrarca, se entrecruza con la tradición consolatoria, enriqueciéndola y transformándola. Mediante el ejercicio de la razón y el ascetismo la consolatoria propone, así, un camino de edificación y pedagogía espiritual para soportar el sufrimiento humano: la enfermedad, el exilio, la pobreza y, sobre todo, la muerte. En este bloque nos centraremos en el análisis de los temas y los tópicos de este género, referenciándolos en los textos que tuvieron mayor difusión y repercusión en la tradición occidental.

O Boetijevi predsmrtni zaobrnitvi filozofije h muzični ubranosti poezij in temeljnim vprašanjem teologije pričuje že prosimetrična zgradba avtorjeve Tolažbe filozofije. Kljub začetni odvrnitvi od presladke spevnosti Muz namreč tudi sama gospa Filozofija svoj terapevtski nagovor duhovno oslabelemu jetniku zastavi v ritmično ubrani izmenjavi dialektičnega razpravljanja z blagozvočnimi spodbudami, ki navsezadnje doseže vrh prav v radikalnem prevpraševanju skrivnosti sobivanja Božje Previdnosti in človekove svobodne volje. Ta zaobrnitev se z vidika srednjeveškega redovniškega ali – kar v tistem času pomeni isto – filozofskega življenja kaže kot eshatološka zaobrnitev od povnanjene ločenosti spevno muzične in razpravljalno kontemplativne drže k molitveno ponotranjeni ubranosti glasu z umom in uma z Bogom. Koliko nas ta zaobrnitev od tolažbe filozofije k tolažbi glasbe in teologije lahko nagovori še danes?

Shiyan T.A. The Hierarchy of Goods by Boethius as a mathematical structure.
Synopsis: There is discussed in the text a hierarchy of goods described in the item X of the third book of “Consolatio Philosophiae” by Boethius. The thesis of the author is that the hierarchy is described as partially ordered set with unit. The main part of the speech will devote to explication and argumentation of this thesis.

Boethius' “Consolation of Philosophy” combines a philosophical dialogue with the use of prosimetrum. This mixture of prose and poetry in several meters originally served a satirical criticism of high culture literature and/or philosophy. With regard to the “Consolation”, however, the interpretation of the prosimetrum is a matter of controversy. This article uses insights from modern genre theory to understand the processes of genre transformation active in the “Consolation”, and highlights Martianus Capella as an important mediator between earlier prosimetric satires and Boethius' “Consolation”. Then, the article analyses how philosophical dialogue and prosimetric satire are evoked throughout the “Consolation” to create a generic hybrid in which both genres are assigned a proper function in relation to the aim of the “Consolation”: to assure the reader of the existence of a cosmic moral order.

This article focuses on the sections 49-56 of the De angelo perdito by Gilbert Crispin, where he intended to solve the problem between free will and divine Providence. It aims to show how Gilbert draws on the argumentative scheme of the fifth book of the Consolatio philosophiae, and uses this source in a personal manner. On that basis, its purpose is both to highlight the lack of references to Boethius in the apparatus fontium of the critical edition and to provide further evidence that the philosophical production of the fourth Abbot of Westminster is not a rehashed summary of Anselm’s, as it was usually believed.