Abstract

Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy can be counted among the most popular books of the early Middle Ages: it was extensively copied, glossed, commented upon, and translated. But where did the text resurface at the end of the century? How did early medieval scholars react to this complicated book, replete with Platonic lore yet devoid of explicit references to Christ? How did translators such as Alfred and Notker cope with the difficult philosophical vocabulary of the text they turned into Old English and Old High German? A few answers are given in the present book, whose purpose is to examine the impact of the last great book of Antiquity upon the culture of the ninth and tenth centuries