Boethius (d. 524)
Two consecutive leaves from De Consolatione Philosophiae with commentary of Nicolas Trivet (d. 1334?), in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, 14th century].
Two leaves from one of the most influential and widely-copied philosophical treatises of the Middle Ages, with the commentary of the English Anglo-Norman chronicler Nicholas Trivet.

c. 320 × 215mm. Each written in 2 columns of 52 lines, the main text in formal textura and the commentary in smaller, less formal, Anglicana, the first with the end of Book IV and start of Book V, the second continuing without break: ‘Ite nunc fortes […] Prosa id est libri 5 Boeci de consolacione philosophie. Dixerat orationisque […] tibi viam qua patriam’, with gloss ‘et ante bellum Troianum […] quia non totam’, Book V with a four-line illuminated initial with gold ivy-leaf sprays extending up and down between the columns, and a three-line initial in blue with red penwork flourishing (recovered from use as pastedowns in a tanned leather binding, with consequent darkening, creases, stains, etc., but almost entirely legible).

Provenance:
(1) 16th-century pen-trials in English and Latin.
(2) Colker MS 264; acquired in 1977 from Maggs.

More than a hundred manuscripts in Latin, French, and Italian exist of Trivet’s commentary on Boethius, which became the leading commentary on the work in the late Middle Ages, influencing Jean de Meun and Chaucer, among others. It has not been edited in print, but a typescript edition by the late E. T. Silk, Professor of Classics at Yale University from 1929 to 1970, based on just seven manuscripts, is available online.

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