Ernst Gegenschatz Boeken

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.