BOECI
. The fragmentary Occitan paraphrase of Boethius’s De consolatione Philosophiae is
regarded as the oldest literary text preserved in the language, written, perhaps, ca. 1000–
30. In 258 lines of epic verse, the fragment narrates Boethius’s imprisonment and then
describes the visit of Lady Philosophy, as in Book 1 of the De consolatione.
William D.Paden
[See also: BOETHIUS, INFLUENCE OF; DIDACTIC LITERATURE (OCCITAN)]
Lavaud, René, and Georges Machicot, eds. Boecis. Toulouse: Institut d’Études Occitanes, 1950.
Schwarze, Christoph, ed. Der altprovenzalische Boeci. Münster: Aschendorff, 1963.
BOETHIUS, INFLUENCE OF
. The late Roman philosopher, translator, and political figure Boethius (480–534) belongs
to the group of late-antique scholars who conveyed to the earlier Middle Ages the
techniques and principles of classical learning. His work lies in four distinct areas: (1)
Logic. Boethius provided and improved texts and commentaries in the Aristotelian
tradition, which were gradually recovered by the Carolingians to form the basis of the
“old logic” (logica vetus) and constituted the logica nova of the 12th-century schools. (2)
De arithmetica and De institutione musica. Both treatises made available Greek
numerical theory, on which scholars from the 11th century onward (such as Guido of
Arezzo) could base their discussions. (3) Five theological tractates, called the Opuscula
sacra. Written as a contribution to debate on the nature of Christ, these were a rare
example of theological questions subjected to logical analysis, with no appeal to the
authority of Scripture or the church. As such, they caught the attention of Johannes
Scottus Eriugena and the Carolingian school of Auxerre. Whether or not they were
known to Anselm of Bec, his philosophical theology is in the same tradition. A new
critique was offered by Gilbert of Poitiers and others in Paris in the 1140s, and the first
tractate was analyzed a century later by Aquinas. (4) De consolatione Philosophiae.
Boethius’s masterpiece was written (or presented as having been written) in his last
months as a prisoner of King Theoderic in Pavia. The Consolation is Boethius’s debate
with himself on the meaning of life. What is the value of wealth and learning, the
justification of moral acts, the role of chance in a divinely ordered universe? In
Boethius’s concluding words, “God sees all.” His relation to God is that of the
philosopher: there is no reference to Christ. Thus, the Consolation has no point of contact
with the Opuscula sacra; instead, it rehearses the literary and philosophical
commonplaces of the classical world. The work was endlessly fascinating to medieval
readers, from Alcuin onward. In particular, Book 3, meter 9 (o qui perpetua mundum
ratione gubernas), conjured up a Platonist universe in which there was every temptation
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