Laila Straume-Zimmermann Volgorde van de boeken (chronologisch)

Trost in der Todeszelle Von Theoderich zunächst gefördert, dann wegen Hochverrats zum Tode verurteilt, verfasste Boethius seine Schrift im Gefängnis vor seiner Hinrichtung im Jahr 524 n. Chr. Hier erscheint ihm eine Frau mit 'höchst ehrwürdigem Antlitz, mit funkelnden Augen, von frischer Farbe und unerschöpflicher Jugendkraft, obwohl sie in keiner Weise unserem Zeitalter anzugehören schien'. Trost findet Boethius in seinen dunkelsten Stunden also nicht im Christentum, sondern in den Gesprächen mit der personifizierten Philosophie.

Boethius composed <i>De Consolation Philosophiae</i> in the 6th century while awaiting death by torture, condemned on a charge of plotting against Gothic rule, which he protested as manifestly unjust. Though a Christian, Boethius details the true end of life as the soul's knowledge of God, and consoles himself with the tenets of Greek philosophy, not with Christian precepts. Written in a form called Meippean Satire that alternates between prose &amp; verse, Boethius' work often consists of a story told by Ovid or Horace to illustrate the philosophy being expounded. <i>The Consolation of Philosophy</i> dominated the intellectual world of the Middle Ages. It inspired writers as diverse Thomas Aquinas, Jean de Meun &amp; Dante. In England it was rendered into Old English by Alfred the Great, into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. Later Queen Elizabeth I made her own translation. The circumstances of composition, the heroic demeanor of the author, and the Meippean texture of part prose, part verse have been a fascination for students of philosophy, literature and religion ever since.