BOETHIUS, Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus

De consolatione philosophiae.

      Nuremberg Anton Koberger 1486. Folio. [ 33 x 22 cm.] (74) ff. (1, 73 and 74 blank) (ie. (*6), a-b8,c-h6/8, i10). Table in two columns. 72 lines of introduction. Text surrounded by commentary. Types: 165, head-lines (numbers of books); 92 (83). Capital spaces, mostly with guide-letters in the commentary. Bound in contemporary wooden boards backed with alum-tawed deerskin stained pale pink (color remaining only on turn-ins), blind-stamped with fleur-de-lys garland on front and large rosettes on rear board, printer’s waste pastedowns, chased brass catchplates (without clasps), title written on front board in contemporary hand, later paper spine labels (leather worn, boards slightly wormed, front flyleaf detached) Some worming affecting text (c. 2 letters) throughout, waterstaining in upper margin, annotated throughout in a contemporary hand, including title and note on the author on flyleaf. Provenance: annotated throughout in a contemporary hand, including title and note on the author on flyleaf—Bregenz (Tyrol), Benedictine monastery: 17th-c. inscription on opening page (Ex Bibliotheca Monasterii Brigantini) Rare Koberger edition (reprint of 1483) and fine copy of one of the most widely-read contemplative texts of the Middle Ages. According to the ISTC, Koberger produced editions of Boethius (ca. 480-524 AD) in 1473, 1476, 1483, 1486 and 1495. The extensive printed commentary included in these editions has been attributed to Thomas Aquinas (including in the contemporary annotation on the flyleaf), but more recently to the Welsh priest Thomas Wallensis. Boethius wrote his Consolation of Philosophy in 524 AD while awaiting execution. During this year of imprisonment, he examined his understanding of the world without explicitly referring to his faith. Nonetheless, he was considered a Christian martyr and his work became de rigeur by the late fifteenth century. "To acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalised in the Middle Ages." Such was the praise for The Consolation of Philosophy granted . by C.S. Lewis . From the Carolingian epoch to the end of the Middle Ages and beyond, this was the most widely copied work of secular literature in Europe. It was translated into Old English by King Alfred, into Old French by Jean de Meun, into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer and into Elizabethan English by Queen Elizabeth herself—to list only the most celebrated versions." (O’Donnell). Koberger evidently valued Boethius’ text highly as well, for the first book he ever printed (in 1473) was the first bilingual edition of the text (Latin and German). This copy has been read thoroughly. There are extensive annotations in both the text and commentary by one or two contemporary hands, including underlining and numerous diagrams (an animated assortment of hands, eyes, arrows, etc.). The notes particularly emphasize Boethius’ description of the vagaries of Fortune (book 2), and appears to agree with the conclusions of the pseudo-Aquinas gloss by evoking the Trinity."Anton Koberger of Nuremberg, perhaps the most powerful publisher of his day . . . brought out between 1473 and 1513 at least 236 books, most of them of the first importance." Lefevre, 124. He is also known for facilitating the use of images with text for the massive achievement of the heavily illustrated Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), and also produced Bibles and spectacular devotional texts including the Schatzbehalter (1491). *Goff B-781; BMC II, 430; cf. PMM 34. O’Donnell, Preface to A Consolation of Philosophy, 1990. Illustrated by (ca. 480-ca. 524).