The Alfredian Boethius Project

Anglo-Saxon adaptations of the De Consolatione Philosophiae

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board, 2002-7, and based at the Faculty of English, University of Oxford.

Director: Malcolm Godden, Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford
Co-director: Professor Susan Irvine, Department of English, University College, London
Co-editor: Dr Mark Griffith, Fellow and tutor, New College, Oxford
Research Associate and Project Co-ordinator: Dr Rohini Jayatilaka, Faculty of English, University of Oxford
 

The Alfredian Boethius Project was completed on 30 September 2007. The new edition of the Old English Boethius was published by Oxford University Press on 16 April 2009. For details of the contents of the book click here.

In addition to the edition and the symposium papers published on this site (see Annual Symposia below), the work of the project generated several publications during the course of the project. For a list of these publications click here.

A continuation project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, to compile and edit the early medieval commentary on the Latin De Consolatione Philosophiae began on 1 October 2007. See here for details.
 

The Project

The Alfredian Boethius Project began in 2002, and its primary aim is to enhance understanding of the Anglo-Saxon adaptation and appropriation of late Roman culture, especially in the circle of King Alfred. The project aims over the next five years to undertake intensive research into the history and background of the Anglo-Saxon interest in Boethius, and particularly the Anglo-Saxon versions of his De Consolatione Philosophiae, or 'On the Consolation of Philosophy'.

The main areas it hopes to focus on are:

  • the origins of the mass of information about classical history and legend, the natural world and the human psyche which is used in the adaptation of the Latin text to fit a later and less classically-learned world
  • the purposes and mentality behind the very extensive adaptation of the arguments and illustrations of Boethius, and their implications for the assessment of the cultural achievements of the Alfredian period and its political ideology
  • the text as a focus for debate about Old English metrics and poetic composition
  • the evidence which the successive copies of the text provide for the development of the English language
  • the relationship of the Anglo-Saxon translations to the tradition of glossing and commentary which survives in Latin manuscripts throughout Europe, and to the textual tradition of the De Consolatione itself
  • the stylistic, linguistic and intellectual relationships between the Old English Boethius and other works of the period, especially the two most closely linked Alfredian texts, the Soliloquies and the Orosius, with a view to establishing a sounder base for views on authorship and on the cultural connections of these texts

The Project organises annual symposia to explore and publicise these issues, and reports on work in progress on this website and at major conferences. The results of this work will be presented in a new, expansive and thorough edition of the Alfredian Boethius, with introduction, commentary, translation and glossary, to be published by Oxford University Press in about 2009.
 

Related projects

A crucial factor in the establishment of a sound text of the Alfredian versions is our link with the parallel project run by Professor Kevin Kiernan of the University of Kentucky, in association with the British Library. Professor Kiernan is preparing new digital images of the burnt Cotton manuscript, which will allow better access to the damaged text than has ever been possible since the Cotton fire of 1731. Our own project will be helping to organise the production of digital images of the two Oxford manuscripts as part of that project.
 

Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was a Roman scholar and statesman, a prominent member of the Roman senate in the early sixth century and a leading counsellor to the Ostrogothic king Theoderic, who ruled Italy from 493 to 526. In 523, at the height of his influence and power, Boethius suddenly fell from favour, accused by fellow-senators of plotting against the king. He was sent into exile, and perhaps imprisonment, in Pavia, and was killed, apparently at the king's orders, in 524.

While in exile in Pavia Boethius wrote his most famous work the De Consolatione Philosophiae in which he sought through philosophy to come to terms with the vicissitudes of fortune and the apparent triumph of evil. Written in Latin prose interspersed with more lyrical or impassioned passages in verse, the work was to become one of the seminal texts of the European Middle Ages; the Anglo-Saxon adaptations associated with King Alfred were the first of many in English, including versions by Chaucer and later Queen Elizabeth I.

Boethius and the Anglo-Saxons

The widespread fame and serious study of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy seems to have begun at the end of the eighth century with its discovery by Alcuin (c.735 - 804), the Anglo-Saxon scholar who left York for the court of Charlemagne in the 780s and spent most of the remaining years of his life on the Continent, writing, teaching and advising. He may have found the text on a visit to Italy. Through the ninth century it became intensively studied, quoted and commented on over much of the Carolingian world; its philosophy, its metrical varieties, its science and its allusions to classical legend, history and literature, all became part of the academic curriculum. Although the influence of Boethian ideas has sometimes been posited by modern scholars in early Anglo-Saxon poems such as Deor and The Wanderer, the first clear evidence of interest in the work comes in the late ninth century. A copy of the Latin text made in France in the middle of the ninth century (now in the Vatican) had reached Britain by the end of the century, when notes and glosses were added in a script characteristic of Wales or south-west England; the manuscript was later glossed and annotated further in southern England, by St Dunstan among others. Glossed copies and Latin commentaries were to become common in England in the tenth and eleventh centuries. But the most significant development was the ninth-century translation and adaptation of the text attributed to King Alfred.

Boethius and King Alfred

King Alfred's programme for a series of translations of the major Latin works of the past is set out in the prefatory letter with which he introduced the first of his own translations, that of Gregory the Great's Regula Pastoralis. There he urges the importance of both teaching the young to read English and making books available to them in that language, and notes the help he has had from a series of English and foreign advisers, including the Welshman Asser, John the Saxon and Grimbald the Frank. The king himself is generally thought to have been responsible for the versions of the De Consolatione and the Regula Pastoralis that survive, and also for two other substantial translations into Old English, each surviving in just one later manuscript:

  • a translation of the first fifty psalms, complete with brief introductions explaining the origins and meaning of each psalm
  • an ambitious adaptation and continuation in English of St Augustine of Hippo's unfinished early philosophical work, the Soliloquies.

Two other translations that were closely associated with the king are:

  • a version, by an unknown Anglo-Saxon contemporary of King Alfred, of the History of the World against the Pagans by the early fifth-century Spanish priest and friend of St Augustine, Orosius
  • a rendering of Gregory the Great's Dialogues, translated at the king's request by Waerferth, the Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Worcester.

The Versions of the Anglo-Saxon Boethius

There are two versions of the Anglo-Saxon adaptation of the Consolation of Philosophy, one all in prose and the other alternating verse and prose, and the history and relationship of these two is one of the great issues of current Anglo-Saxon scholarship.

The Bodley Version

What is probably the first version survives only in a twelfth-century manuscript now in Oxford, MS Bodley 180. This begins with a preface identifying Alfred as author (though in the third person), and then goes on to give a table of contents, dividing the work into 42 chapters, and an introductory account of Boethius and the circumstances which led up to the composition of the work. This is followed by a rendering of the work itself in Old English prose. The text is very freely adapted, with much new material reflecting Alfredian concerns and expansions of the many allusions to classical legend and history.

The preface reports that the king wrote the text first in prose and then turned it into verse 'as is now done'. What follows is nevertheless all in prose, but the other version which survives does indeed use verse.

The Cotton Version

This survives only in a manuscript of the mid-tenth century, now in London, British Library MS Cotton Otho A vi. Much of the text in this version corresponds closely with that in the Bodley version, but there is an additional brief preface in verse, identifying Alfred again as the author of this version, the introduction on Boethius and his circumstances has been turned into verse, and so have some thirty sections of the prose translation itself - the parts which were designated in the prose version as 'songs' or 'poems' and which correspond to metrical passages in the original Latin text. This version thus alternates between prose and verse throughout its length.

The Junius Version

The Cotton Otho manuscript was very badly damaged in the great Cotton fire of 1731, which destroyed or damaged many of the medieval manuscripts collected by Sir Robert Cotton in the 16th and 17th centuries, including the only manuscript of Beowulf. Fortunately the Dutch antiquarian and scholar Francis Junius had made a copy of the Oxford manuscript in the 17thC and collated it carefully with the Cotton version, copying the different readings on to the margins of this transcript, and on additional leaves. That transcript is preserved in the Bodleian library at Oxford, as MS Junius 12, and is the only source for parts of the Cotton copy which can no longer be read.

Whether King Alfred was really the author of the English translation has not yet been established with certainty. The contemporary account of the king ascribed to Asser presents him (though not consistently) as an earnest but ill-educated man who did not learn Latin until he was about 38, some 12 or 13 years before his death, and one might question whether such a person could really have mastered the complex Latin of Boethius, especially the metres, and translated it so confidently, particularly in the midst of major warfare which almost destroyed his kingdom. There are, too, signs that whoever produced the Old English metrical version did not have the kind of familiarity with the Latin text of Boethius and the other sources used in the original translation which one might have expected if he was the original translator - whether that was Alfred himself or someone else. But the work certainly became well known in the next century. Æthelweard, the late tenth century ealdorman and chronicler, refers to it as a much read work which moved its readers to tears, and Ælfric the homilist drew extensively upon it in his own writings. Leofric, the eleventh-century bishop of Exeter, left a copy to his cathedral library, and the work continued to attract interest through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

This bibliography is a preliminary listing of publications related to the concerns of the project. It is work in progress and we would be grateful if readers would let us know of any other items relevant to our project that ought to be included.

Editions and translations of the Latin text

Boethius

Boethius. Philosophiae Consolationis Libri Quinque, ed. Rudolf Peiper (Leipzig, 1871).

———. De Consolatione Philosophiae, ed. Wilhelm Weinberger, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 67 (Vienna, 1934).

———. Philosophiae Consolatio, ed. Ludwig Bieler, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 94 (Turnhout, 1957).

———. The Theological Tractates, The Consolation of Philosophy, with an English translation by H. F. Stewart, E. K. Rand and S. J. Tester, Loeb Classical Library (London, 1973).

———. De Consolatione Philosophiae, Opuscula Theologica, ed. Claudio Moreschini, Bibliotheca Teubneriana (Munich, 2000).

Notker

Notker. Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiæ, Buch I/II, ed. Petrus W. Tax, Die Werke Notker des Deutschen, Neue Ausgabe 1; Altdeutsche Textbibliothek 94 (Tübingen, 1986).

———. Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiæ, Buch III, ed. Petrus W. Tax, Die Werke Notker des Deutschen, Neue Ausgabe 2; Altdeutsche Textbibliothek 100 (Tübingen, 1988).

———. Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiæ, Buch IV/V, ed. Petrus W. Tax, Die Werke Notker des Deutschen, Neue Ausgabe 3; Altdeutsche Textbibliothek 101 (Tübingen, 1990).

Editions and translations of the Old English text

An. Manl. Sever. Boethi Consolationis Philosophiæ Libri V. Anglo-Saxonice redditi ab Alfredo, Inclyto Anglo-Saxonum Rege. Ad apographum Junianum expressos edidit Christophorus Rawlinson e Collegio Reginae, ed. Christopher Rawlinson (Oxford, 1698).

King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of Boethius 'De Consolatione Philosophiæ', with an English translation and notes, ed. J. S. Cardale (London, 1829).

King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of the Metres of Boethius, with an English translation and notes, trans. Rev. Samuel Fox (London, 1835).

King Alfred's Poems: Now First Turned into English Metres, ed. Martin F. Tupper (London, 1850).

'Älfreds Metra', in Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, ed. C. W. M. Grein (Göttingen, 1857-64), vol. 2, pp. 295-339.

King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of Boethius 'De Consolatione Philosophiae', with a literal English translation, notes and glossary, ed. Rev. Samuel Fox (London, 1864).

Napier, Arthur S., 'Bruchstück einer altenglischen Boetius-Handschrift', Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 19 (1887), 52-4.

'Metra des Boetius', ed. B. Assmann, in Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, ed. in R. P. Wülker (Leipzig, 1898), vol. 3, part 2, pp. 1-57.

King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius 'De Consolatione Philosophiae', ed. W. J. Sedgefield (Oxford, 1899).

King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius Done into Modern English, with an Introduction, trans. W. J. Sedgefield (Oxford, 1900).

Die altenglischen Metra des Boetius, ed. Ernst Krämer (Bonn, 1902).

The Paris Psalter and the Meters of Boethius, ed. G. P. Krapp, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 5 (New York, 1932).

Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge (Harmondsworth, 1983).

Alfred's Metres of Boethius, ed. Bill Griffiths (Pinner, 1991; rev. edn 1994).

Lieder aus König Alfreds Trostbuch: die Stabreimverse der altenglischen Boethius-Übertragung, ed. Obst, Wolfgang, and Florian Schleburg, Anglistische Forschungen 259 (Heidelberg, 1998).

 

Facsimile editions

Robinson, Fred C., and E. G. Stanley. Old English Verse Texts from Many Sources: A Comprehensive Collection, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 23 (Copenhagen, 1991).

Studies of the Latin text and commentary tradition

Beaumont, Jacqueline. 'The Latin Tradition of the De Consolatione Philosophiae', in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence, ed. Margaret T. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), pp. 278-305.

Bergmann, Rolf, and Stefanie Stricker-Bamberg. 'Die althochdeutschen Boethiusglossen: Ansätze zu einer Überlieferungstypologie', Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Alteren Germanistik 43-44 (1995), 13-47.

Bolton, Diane K., 'The Study of the Consolation of Philosophy in Anglo-Saxon England', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 44 (1977), 33-78.

———. 'Remigian Commentaries on the Consolation of Philosophy and their Sources', Traditio 33 (1977), 381-94.

———. 'Illustrations in Manuscripts of Boethius' Works', in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence, ed. Margaret T. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), pp. 428-37.

Brown, Virginia. 'Lupus of Ferrières on the Metres of Boethius', in Latin Script and Letters, A.D. 400-900: Festschrift Presented to Ludwig Bieler on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, ed. John J. O'Meara and Bern Naumann (Leiden, 1978), pp. 63-79.

Courcelle, Pierre. 'Étude critique sur les commentaires de la Consolation de Boèce (IXe–XVe) siècles)', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 14 (1939), 5-140.

———. 'La culture antique de Rémi d'Auxerre', Latomus 7 (1948), 247-54.

———. La Consolation de Philosophie dans la tradition littéraire (Paris, 1967).

Daly, E. J., 'An Early Ninth-Century Manuscript of Boethius', Scriptorium 4 (1950), 205-19.

D'Onofrio, G., 'Giovanni Scoto e Boezio: tracce degli Opuscula Sacra e della Consolatio nell' opera eriugeniana', Studi Medievali 21 (1980), 707-52.

———. 'Giovanni Scoto e Remigio di Auxerre: a proposito di alcuni commenti altomedievali a Boezio', Studi Medievali 22 (1981), 587-693.

Engelbrecht, August. 'Die Consolatio philosophiae des Boethius: Beobachtungen über den Stil des Autors und die Ueberlieferung seines Werkes', Sitzungsberichte der phil.-historischen klasse der Kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften 144 (1901), 1-60.

Frakes, Jerold C., 'The Ancient Concept of casus and its Early Medieval Interpretations', Vivarium 22 (1984), 1-34.

———. 'The Knowledge of Greek in the Early Middle Ages: the Commentaries on Boethius', Studi Medievali 27 (1986), 23-43.

———. The Fate of Fortune in the Early Middle Ages: the Boethian Tradition (New York, 1988).

Fryde, Edmund. 'The manuscript of the writings of Boethius belonging to Lupus of Ferrières (? c. 829 - c. 836)', in Ysgrifau a Cherddi Cyflwynedig i Daniel Huws: Essays and Poems Presented to Daniel Huws, ed. Tegwyn Jones and E. B. Fryde (Aberystwyth, 1994), pp. 251-82.

Gibson, Margaret T., 'Boethius in the Carolingian Schools', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th series, 32 (1982), 43-56.

Gibson, Margaret T., Michael Lapidge, and C. Page. 'Neumed Boethian Metra from Canterbury: A Newly Recovered Leaf of Cambridge University Library, Gg.5.35 (the 'Cambridge Songs' Manuscript)', Anglo-Saxon England 12 (1983), 141-52.

Gibson, Margaret T., 'Boethius in the Tenth Century', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch: Internationale Zeitschrift für Mediävistik 24-5, no. for 1989-90 (1991), 117-24.

Godden, Malcolm. 'Alfred, Asser, and Boethius', in Latin learning and English lore: studies in Anglo-Saxon literature for Michael Lapidge, ed. K. O'Brien O'Keeffe and Andy Orchard (Toronto, 2005), pp. 326-48.

Hale, W. C. 'An Edition and Codicological Study of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 214', PhD dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, 1978).

Hehle, Christine. Boethius in St. Gallen : Die Bearbeitung der 'Consolatio Philosophiae' durch Notker Teutonicus zwischen Tradition und Innovation (Tübingen, 2002).

Hoenen, Maarten J. F. M., and Lodi Nauta. Boethius in the Middle Ages: Latin and Vernacular Traditions of the Consolatio Philosophiae, Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 58 (Leiden, 1997).

Huglo, Michel. 'Remarques sur un manuscrit de la Consolatio Philosophiae (Londres, British Library, Harleian 3095)', Scriptorium 45 (1991), 288-94.

Huygens, R. B. C., 'Mittelalterliche Kommentare zum O qui perpetua...' Sacris Erudiri 6 (1954), 373-427.

Jeudy, Colette. 'L'œuvre de Remi d'Auxerre: État de la question', in L'École carolingienne d'Auxerre: de Murethach à Remi 830-908, ed. Dominique Iogna-Prat, Colette Jeudy and Guy Lobrichon (Paris, 1991), pp. 373-97.

———. 'Remigii autissiodorensis opera (Clavis)', in L'École carolingienne d'Auxerre: de Murethach à Remi 830-908, ed. Dominique Iogna-Prat, Colette Jeudy and Guy Lobrichon (Paris, 1991), pp. 457-500.

Karáth, Tamás. 'Quaedam Catholicae Fidei Contraria: the Platonic Tradition in the Early Medieval Commentaries and Translations of Metre III. 9 of Boëthius' Consolatio Philosophiae', in What Does It Mean?, ed. Kathleen E. Dubs, Pázmány Papers in English and American Studies 3 (Piliscsaba, 2004), pp. 57-77.

Marenbon, John. Boethius (Oxford, 2003).

Mathon, G., 'Le commentaire du Pseudo-Érigène sur la Consolatio Philosophiae de Boèce', Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 22 (1955), 213-57.

———. 'Le tradition de la Consolation de Boèce', Revue des études Augustiniennes 14 (1968), 133-38.

Naumann, Hans. Notkers Boethius: Untersuchungen über Quellen und Stil (Strassburg, 1913).

Ó Néill, Pádraig. 'Irish glosses in a twelfth-century copy of Boethius's Consolatio Philosophiae, Ériu 55 (2005), 1-17.

Page, Christopher. 'The Boethian Metrum 'Bella bis quinis': a new song from Saxon Canterbury', in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence, ed. Margaret T. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), pp. 306-11.

Page, R. I., 'Recent Work on Old English Glosses: the Case of Boethius', in Mittelalterliche volkssprachige Glossen: Internationale Fachkonferenz des Zentrums für Mittelalterstudien der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2. bis 4. August 1999, ed. Rolf Bergmann, Elvira Glaser and Claudine Moulin-Fankhänel (Heidelberg, 2001), pp. 217-42.

Palmer, Nigel F., 'Latin and Vernacular in the Northern European Tradition of the De Consolatione Philosophiae', in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence, ed. Margaret T. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), pp. 362-409.

Parkes, M. B., 'A Note on MS Vatican, Bibl. Apost., lat. 3363', in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence, ed. Margaret T. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), pp. 425-7.

Patch, Howard Rollin. The Tradition of Boethius: A Study of his Importance in Medieval Culture (New York, 1935).

Peiper, Rudolf. 'Glossen zu Boethius', Zeitschrift für deutsches Philologie 5 (1874), 76.

Rand, E. K., Johannes Scottus. i. Der Kommentar des Johannes Scottus zu den Opuscula sacra des Boethius. ii. Der Kommentar des Remigius von Auxerre zu den Opuscula sacra des Boethius. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters, Vol. I.2 (Munich, 1906).

———. 'Prickings in a Manuscript of Orléans', Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 70 (1939), 327-41.

Reeve, Michael D. 'Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Vegetius', in Nova de veteribus: Mittel- und neulateinische Studien für Paul Gerhard Schmidt, ed. Andreas Bihrer and Elisabeth Stein (Leipzig, 2004), pp. 176-79.

Rigg, A. G., and G. R. Wieland. 'A Canterbury Classbook of the Mid-Eleventh Century (the "Cambridge Songs" Manuscript)', Anglo-Saxon England 4 (1975), 113-30.

Roti, Grant Clifford. 'Anonymus in Boetii Consolationem Philosophiae Commentarius ex Sangallensis Codice Liber Primus', PhD dissertation (State University of New York at Albany, 1979).

Schepss, Georg. 'Handschriftliche Studien zu Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae', in Programm der Königlichen Studien-Anstalt Würzburg (Würzburg, 1881), pp. 35-9.

———. 'Geschichtliches aus Boethiushandschriften', Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 9 (1886), 123-40.

Silk, E. T., Saeculi Noni Auctoris in Boetii Consolationem Philosophiae Commentarius, Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome (Rome, 1935).

———. 'Notes on Two Neglected Mss. of Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae', Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 70 (1939), 352-56.

———. 'Pseudo-Johannes Scottus, Adalbold of Utrecht, and the early commentaries on Boethius', Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies 3 (1954), 1-40.

———. 'Was Pseudo-Johannes Scottus or Remigius of Auxerre a Plagiarist?' in Saints, Scholars and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honour of Charles W. Jones, ed. Margot H. King and Wesley M. Stevens, 2 vols. (Collegeville, MN, 1979), vol. II, pp. 127-40.

Silvestre, H., 'Le commentaire inédit de Jean Scot Érigène au mètre IX du Livre III du De consolatione philsophiae', Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 47 (1952), 44-122.

———. 'La Consolation de Boèce et sa tradition littéraire', Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 64 (1969), 23-36.

Sims-Williams, P. 'A New Brittonic Gloss on Boethius: ud rocashaas', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 50 (Winter 2005), 77-86.

Starck, T. 'Unpublished Old High German Glosses to Boethius and Prudentius', in Mediaeval Studies in Honor of Jeremiah Denis Matthias Ford, ed. Urban T. Holmes Jr. and Alex J. Denomy (Cambridge, MA, 1948), pp. 301-17.

Stewart, H. F., 'A Commentary by Remigius Autissiodorensis on the De Consolatione Philosophiae of Boethius', Journal of Theological Studies 17 (1916), 22-42.

Tax, Petrus W., 'Ahd. aleot = alôt(i), alôd(i) 'Nachlaß, Hinterlassenschaft, mlat. alodis, alodus (-um), allodium? Ein philologischer und kodikologischer Versuch', Sprachwissenschaft 24, no. 3 (1999), 257-70.

———. 'Die althochdeutschen 'Consolatio'-Glossen in der Handschrift Einsiedeln 179: Grundtext- oder Glossenglossierung? Ein neuer, systematischer Ansatz, Teil I', Sprachwissenschaft 26, no. 3 (2001), 327-58.

———. 'Die althochdeutschen 'Consolatio'-Glossen in der Handschrift Einsiedeln 179: Grundtext- oder Glossenglossierung? Ein neuer, systematischer Ansatz, Teile II und III', Sprachwissenschaft 26, no. 4 (2001), 359-416.

———. 'Das Längezeichen e im Fränkischen und Alemannischen schon um 1000? Eine neue Hypothese', Sprachwissenschaft 27, no. 2 (2002), 129-42.

Troncarelli, Fabio. 'Per una ricerca sui commenti altomedievali al De Consolatione di Boezio', in Miscellanea in Memoria di Giorgio Cencetti (Turin, 1973), pp. 363-80.

———. Tradizioni perdute. La Consolatio Philosophiae nell' alto medioevo (Padua, 1981).

———. 'Philosophia: vitam monasticam agere. l'interpretazione cristiana della Consolatio philosophiae di Boezio dal IX al XII secolo', Quaderni medievali 15 (1983), 6-25.

———. Boethiana Aetas. Modelli grafici e fortuna manoscritta della Consolatio Philosophiae tra IX e XII secolo (Alessandria, 1987).

———. 'Una nuova edizione della Consolatio philosophiae di Boezio nel Corpus Christianorum', Scriptorium 41 (1987), 133-50.

———. 'Aristoteles Piscatorius. Note sulle opere teologiche di Boezio e sulla loro fortuna', Scriptorium 42 (1988), 3-19.

———. Cogitatio Mentis: L'eredità di Boezio nell'Alto Medioevo, Storie e testi 16 (Napoli, 2005).

Wittig, J. S., 'Boethius', in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, ed. Frederick M. Biggs, Thomas D. Hill and Paul E. Szarmach (Binghamton, NY, 1990), pp. 74-79.

Studies of the Old English texts and related issues

Anlezark, Daniel., 'Three notes on the Old English Meters of Boethius', Notes and Queries n.s. 51 (2004), 10-15.

Bartlett, Gary Norton. 'Translations and Translation Principles in the Old English and Old High German Versions of Boethius's De Consolatione Philsophiae', PhD dissertation (University of Minnesota, 1996).

Bately, Janet. 'The Literary Prose of King Alfred's Reign: Translation or Transformation?' Inaugural Lecture in the Chair of English Language and Medieval Literature delivered at University of London King's College on March 4, 1980; reprinted as Old English Newsletter Subsidia 10 (1984).

———. 'On Some Words for Time in Old English Literature', in Problems of Old English Lexicography: Studies in Memory of Angus Cameron,, Eichstätter Beiträge Band 15: Abteilung Sprache und Literatur (Regensburg, 1985), pp. 47-64.

———. 'Evidence for Knowledge of Latin Literature in Old English', in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (Kalamazoo, 1986), pp. 35-51.

———. 'Old English Prose Before and During the Reign of Alfred', Anglo-Saxon England 17 (1988), 93-138.

———. 'Those Books that are Most Necessary for All Men to Know: the Classics and Late Ninth-Century England, a Reappraisal', in The Classics in the Middle Ages: Papers of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, ed. Aldo S. Bernardo and Saul Levin, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 69 (Binghamton, NY, 1990), pp. 45-78.

———. 'Orosius', in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, ed. Frederick M. Biggs, Thomas D. Hill and Paul E. Szarmach (Binghamton, NY, 1990), pp. 140-43.

———. 'Boethius and King Alfred', in Platonism and the English Imagination, ed. Anna Baldwin and Sarah Hutton (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 38-44.

———. 'An Alfredian Legacy? On the Fortunes and Fate of Some Items of Boethian Vocabulary in Old English', in From Anglo-Saxon to Early Middle English: Studies Presented to E. G. Stanley, ed. Malcolm Godden, Douglas Gray and Terry Hoad (Oxford, 1994), pp. 8-32.

———. 'Book Divisions and Chapter Headings in the Translations of the Alfredian Period', in Early medieval English texts and interpretations: studies presented to Donald G. Scragg, ed. Elaine Treharne and Susan Rosser (Tempe, AZ, 2002), pp. 151-66.

———. 'The Alfredian canon revisited: one hundred years on', in Alfred the Great: Papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, ed. Timothy Reuter (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 107-20.

Bethel, Patricia. 'Regnal and Divine Epithets in the Metrical Psalms and Meters of Boethius', Parergon n.s. 9 (1991), 1-41.

Bolton, Whitney F., 'Boethius, Alfred and Deor Again', Modern Philology 69 (1971/2), 222-7.

———. 'The Alfredian Boethius in Ælfric's Lives of Saints I', Notes and Queries n.s. 19 (1972), 406-7.

———. 'Boethius and a Topos in Beowulf', in Saints, Scholars and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honour of Charles W. Jones, ed. Margot H. King and Wesley M. Stevens, 2 vols. (Collegeville, MN, 1979), vol. I, pp. 15-43.

———. 'How Boethian is Alfred's Boethius?' in Studies in Earlier Old English Prose, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (Albany, NY, 1986), pp. 153-68.

Bright, J., 'Anglo-Saxon Glosses to Boethius', American Journal of Philology 5 (1884), 488-92.

Brinegar, John H. '"Books Most Necessary": The Literary and Cultural Contexts of Alfred's Boethius', PhD dissertation (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000).

Cavanaugh, Denise. 'A Note on Metre 29 of the Old English Metres of Boethius', Notes and Queries n.s. 31 (1984), 293-6.

Cohn, Martin. 'Die Rolle der Metra des Boethius im Streit um die Datierung der Denkmäler der angelsächsischen Poesie', PhD dissertation (Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Breslau, 1922).

Conlee, John W., 'A Note on Verse Composition in the Meters of Boethius', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 (1970), 576-85.

Cook, Kimberly K., 'Philosophy's Metamorphosis into Wisdom: An Exploration of King Alfred's Re-Creation of the Central Symbol in the Consolation of Philosophy', Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 17, no. 3-4 (1996), 177-85.

Cossack, Alfred H. 'Über die altenglische metrische Bearbeitung von Boethius De consolatione philosophiae', PhD dissertation (Leipzig University, 1889).

Crépin, André. 'Du syntagme de prose à l'hémistiche en vieil-anglais d'après la traduction Alfrédienne de Boèce', Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (2001), 927-61.

Discenza, Nicole G. 'Alfred's Cræft of Translation: the Old English Boethius', PhD dissertation (University of Notre Dame, 1996).

———. 'Power, Skill, and Virtue in the Old English Boethius', Anglo-Saxon England 26 (1997), 81-108.

———. 'The Paradox of Humility in the Alfredian Translations', Studia Neophilologica 75 (2003), 44-52.

Donaghey, Brian S., 'The Sources of King Alfred's Translation of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae', Anglia 82 (1964), 23-57.

———. 'Nicholas Trevet's Use of King Alfred's Translation of Boethius, and the Dating of his Commentary', in The Medieval Boethius: Studies in the Vernacular Translations of De Consolatione Philosophiae, ed. A. J. Minnis (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 1-31.

Donoghue, Daniel. 'Word Order and Poetic Style: Auxiliary and Verbal in the Metres of Boethius', Anglo-Saxon England 15 (1986), 167-96.

———. 'On the Old English Metres of Boethius XXIX, lines 82-3', Notes and Queries n.s. 35 (1988), 3-4.

Endo, Sachiko. 'A Study of sculan in King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae', Journal of English Language and Literature (Nihon University) 35 (1987), 137-60.

Exter, Otto. 'Beon und wesan in Alfreds Übersetzung des Boethius, der Metra und der Soliloquien. Eine syntaktische Untersuchung', PhD dissertation (Königl. Christian-Albrechts-Universität, 1911).

Fehlauer, Friedrich. Die englischen Übersetzungen des Boethius De Consolatione Philsophiae, 1: Die alt- und mittelenglischen Übersetzungen (Berlin, 1908).

Fischer, Olga. 'A Comparative Study of the Philosophical Terms in the Alfredian and Chaucerian Boethius', Neophilologus 63 (1979), 622-39.

Förster, Max. 'Zum altenglischen Boethius', Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 106 (1901), 342-3.

Frakes, Jerold C. 'Fortuna in the Consolatio: Boethius, Alfred and Notker', PhD dissertation (University of Minnesota, 1983).

———. 'Die Rezeption der neuplatonischen Metaphysik des Boethius durch Alfred und Notker', Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 106 (1984), 51-74.

Frankis, P. J., 'The Thematic Significance of enta geweorc and Related Imagery in The Wanderer', Anglo-Saxon England 2 (1973), 253-69.

Frantzen, Allen J., 'The Age of Alfred', in Anglo-Latin in the Context of Old English Literature, ed. Paul E. Szarmach, Old English Newsletter Subsidia 9 (Binghamton, NY, 1983), pp. 7-15.

———. King Alfred (Boston, 1986).

———. 'The form and function of the preface in the poetry and prose of Alfred's reign', in Alfred the Great: Papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, ed. Timothy Reuter (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 121-36.

Godden, Malcolm. 'King Alfred's Boethius', in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence, ed. Margaret T. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), pp. 419-24.

———. 'Anglo-Saxons on the Mind', in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge and Helmut Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 271-98.

———. 'Editing Old English and the Problem of Alfred's Boethius', in The Editing of Old English: Papers from the 1990 Manchester Conference, ed. Donald G. Scragg and Paul E. Szarmach (Woodbridge, 1994), pp. 163-76.

———. 'The player king: identification and self-representation in King Alfred's writings', in Alfred the Great: Papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, ed. Timothy Reuter (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 137-50.

———. 'The Anglo-Saxons and the Goths: rewriting the sack of Rome', Anglo-Saxon England 31 (2002), 47-68.

———. 'The translations of Alfred and his circle, and the misappropriation of the past', H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures 14 (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 2004).

———. 'Editing the Old English Boethius', in Text and Language in Medieval English Prose: a festschrift for Tadao Kubouchi, ed. A. Oizumi, J. Fisiak and J. Scahill (Frankfurt, 2005), pp. 49-61

Grinda, Klaus. 'Zu Tradition und Gestaltung des Kirke-Mythos in König Alfreds Boethius', in Motive und Themen in englischsprachiger Literatur als Indikatoren literaturgeschichtlicher Prozesse, ed. Heinz-Joachim Müllenbrock and Alfons Klein (Tübingen, 1990), pp. 1-23.

———. 'The Myth of Circe in King Alfred's Boethius', in Old English Prose: Basic Readings, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (New York and London, 2000), pp. 237-65. [Orignally published as 'Zu Tradition und Gestaltung des Kirke-Mythos in König Alfreds Boethius' (1990)].

Griffith, M. S., 'Verses Quite Like cwen to gebeddan in The Metres of Boethius', Anglo-Saxon England 34 (2005), 145-167.

———. 'Whole-Verse Compound Placement in Old English Poetry', Notes & Queries 53 (2006), 253-62.

Harris, Joseph. 'Deor and Its Refrain: Preliminaries to an Interpretation', Traditio 43 (1987), 23-53.

Hartmann, K. A. Martin. 'Ist König Aelfred der Verfasser der alliterierenden Übertragung der Metra des Boetius?' Anglia 5 (1882), 411-50.

Helbig, Ludwig. 'Altenglische Schlüssebegriffe in den Augustinus- und Boethius-Bearbeitungen Alfreds des Grossen', PhD dissertation (Frankfurt University, 1960).

Holthausen, Ferdinand. 'Zur altenglischen Metraübersetzung', Beiblatt zur Anglia 42 (1931), 157-60.

Horgan, A. D., 'The Wanderer--A Boethian Poem?', Review of English Studies 38 (1987), 40-46.

Hubbard, F. G., 'The Relation of the 'Blooms of King Alfred' to the Anglo-Saxon Translation of Boethius', Modern Language Notes 9 (1894), 161-71.

Inigo Ros, Marta. 'Los términos culturales en los textos latino y anglosajón de la Consolatio Philosophiae de Boecio (Cultural Terms in the Latin and Old English Texts of Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae)', (Universitat de València, 2000).

Irvine, Susan. 'Ulysses and Circe in King Alfred's Boethius: a Classical Myth Transformed', in Studies in English Language and Literature. 'Doubt Wisely': Papers in Honour of E. G. Stanley, ed. M. J. Toswell and E. M. Tyler (London and New York, 1996), pp. 387-401.

———. 'The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the idea of Rome in Alfredian literature', in Alfred the Great: Papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, ed. Timothy Reuter (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 63-77.

———. 'Wrestling with Hercules: King Alfred and the Classical Past', in Court Culture in the Early Middle Ages: The Proceedings of the First Alcuin Conference, ed. Catherine Cubitt, Studies in the Early Middle Ages 3 (Turnhout, 2003), pp. 171-88.

———. 'Fragments of Boethius: the reconstruction of the Cotton manuscript of the Alfredian text', Anglo-Saxon England 34 (2005), 169-181.

———. 'Rewriting Women in the Old English Boethius', in New Windows on a Woman's World: Essays in Honour of Professor Jocelyn Harris, ed. Colin Gibson and Lisa Marr, Otago Studies in English 9 (Department of English, University of Otago, 2005), pp. 488-501.

Jack, R. Ian. 'The Significance of the Alfredian Translations', in Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association: Proceedings and Papers of the Thirteenth Congress Held at Monash University, 12-18 Aug. 1970 (Melbourne, 1971), pp. 348-61.

Johnson, Graham P., 'Mistranslation of classica saeva in the Old English Boethius', American Notes and Queries 17 (2004), 12-18.

Kaylor, Noel Harold, Jr. 'The Medieval Translations of Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy in England, France, and Germany: an Analysis and Annotated Bibliography', PhD dissertation (Vanderbilt University, 1985).

Kern, J. H., 'Zu altenglische mærsian', Anglia 28 (1905), 394-96.

———. 'A Few Notes on the Metra of Boethius in Old English', Neophilologus 8 (1923), 295-300.

Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge. Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1983).

Kiernan, Kevin S., 'Deor: the Consolations of an Anglo-Saxon Boethius', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 79 (1978), 333-40.

———. 'Alfred the Great's Burnt Boethius', in The Iconic Page in Manuscript, Print, and Digital Culture, ed. George Bornstein and Theresa Tinkle (Ann Arbor, MI, 1998), pp. 7-32.

———. 'The Source of the Napier fragment of Alfred's Boethius', Digital Medievalist 1 (Spring 2005) [http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal.cfm]

Klaeber, F., 'Notes on Old English Prose Texts. I Boethius', Modern Language Notes 18 (1903), 241-47.

Kleist, Aaron J. 'Striving with Grace: the Sources of Ælfric's doctrine of Free Will', PhD dissertation (University of Cambridge, 2000).

Kluge, Friedrich. 'Anglosaxonica', Anglia 4 (1881), 105-06.

Kock, Ernst A., 'Jubilee Jaunts and Jottings: 250 Contributions to the Interpretation and Prosody of Old West Teutonic Alliterative Poetry', Lunds Universitets Årsskrift nf 1, 14, bd 26 (1918), 1-82.

———. 'Interpretations and Emendations of Early English Texts: VI', Anglia 44 (1920), 97-114.

———. 'Plain Points and Puzzles, 60 Notes on Old English Poetry', Lunds Universitets Årsskrift nf 1, bd 17 (1922), iii-26.

———. 'Interpretations and Emendations of Early English Texts: XI', Anglia 47 (1923), 264-73.

Krawutschke, Alfred. 'Die Sprache der Boethius-Übersetzung des Königs Alfred', PhD dissertation (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, 1902).

Leicht, Alfred. 'Ist König Ælfred der Verfasser der Alliterierenden Metra des Boetius?' Anglia 6 (1883), 126-70.

———. 'Zur angelsächsischen Bearbeitung des Boetius', Anglia 7 (1884), 178-202.

Liggins, Elizabeth M., 'The authorship of the Old English Orosius', Anglia 88 (1970), 289-322.

———. 'The Authorship of the Alfredian Canon', in Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association: Proceedings and Papers of the Thirteenth Congress Held at Monash University, 12-18 Aug. 1970 (Melbourne, 1971), pp. 23-24.

Markland, Murray F., 'Boethius, Alfred and Deor', Modern Philology 66 (1968), 1-4.

Matsui, Noriko. 'On the Semantic Limitation of 'gecynd' in King Alfred's OE Version of Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae', in Philologia Anglica: Essays Presented to Professor Yoshio Terasawa on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, ed. Kinshiro Oshitari and Yoshio Terasawa (Tokyo, 1988), pp. 106-25.

———. 'A Lateral Note for Considering the Formation of the Concept of Nature in Medieval English Literature', in Studies in English Philology in Honour of Shigeru Ono, ed. Koichi Jin (Tokyo, 1990), pp. 393-400.

Metcalf, Allan A. 'The Poetic Language of the Old English Meters of Boethius', PhD dissertation (University of California, Berkeley, 1967).

———. 'On the Authorship and Originality of the Meters of Boethius', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 (1970), 185-6.

———. Poetic Diction in the Old English Meters of Boethius, De Proprietatibus Litterarum, Series Practica 50 (The Hague and Paris, 1973).

Minnis, Alistair. 'Aspects of the Medieval French and English Traditions of the De Consolatione Philosophiae', in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence, ed. Margaret T. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), pp. 312-61.

Monnin, Pierre Eric. 'The Making of the Old English Meters of Boethius: Studies in Traditional Art and Aesthetics', PhD dissertation (University of Massachussetts, 1975).

———. 'Poetic Improvements in the Old English Meters of Boethius', English Studies 60 (1979), 346-60.

Myrvaagnes, Naomi Suconick. 'A Stylistic Study of the Old English Meters of Boethius', PhD dissertation (New York University, 1970).

Napier, Arthur S., 'Zum altenglischen Boethius', Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 24 (1899), 245-6.

North, Richard. 'Boethius and the Mercenary in The Wanderer', in Pagans and Christians: the Interplay between Christian Latin and Traditional Germanic Cultures in Early Medieval Europe, ed. T. Hofstra, L. A. J. R. Houwen and A. A. Mac-Donald (Groningen, 1995), pp. 71-98.

O'Neill, Patrick P., 'On the Date, Provenance and Relationship of the 'Solomon and Saturn' Dialogues', Anglo-Saxon England 26 (1997), 139-68.

Ogilvy, J. D. A., 'Beowulf, Alfred, and Christianity', in Saints, Scholars and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honour of Charles W. Jones, ed. Margot H. King and Wesley M. Stevens, 2 vols. (Collegeville, MN, 1979), vol. I, pp. 59-66.

Otten, Kurt. König Alfreds Boethius, Studien zur englischen Philologie, neue Folge no. 3 (Tübingen, 1964).

Payne, F. A., King Alfred and Boethius: an Analysis of the Old English Version of the Consolation of Philososphy (Madison, WI, 1968).

Petilli, Nicola. 'Boezio in una antica traduzione anglosassone', Città di Vita: Bimestrale di Religione Arte e Scienza 49, no. 4 (1994), 321-26.

Powell, Timothy E., 'The 'Three Orders' of Society in Anglo-Saxon England', Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994), 103-32.

Pratt, David R. 'The Political Thought of Alfred the Great', PhD dissertation (University of Cambridge, 1999).

Proppe, K., 'King Alfred's Consolation of Philosophy', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 74 (1973), 635-48.

Rissanen, Matti. 'In Search of happiness: felicitas and beatitudo in Early English Boethius Translations', Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 31 (1997), 237-48.

Roper, Alan H., 'Boethius and the Three Fates of Beowulf', Philological Quarterly 1962 (1962), 386-400.

Sato, Kiriko. 'Case-forms and mid-phrases in the Old English Metres of Boethius: a Comparison with the Prose Version', Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature 17 (2002), 41-58.

Sauer, Hans. 'König Alfreds Boethius und seine Rhetorik', Anglistik 7.2 (1996), 57-89.

Schepss, Georg. 'Zu König Alfreds Boethius', Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 94 (1895), 149-60.

Schmidt, Karl Heinz. König Alfreds Boethius-Bearbeitung (Göttingen, 1934).

Shirley, Peggy Faye. 'Fals Felicite and Verray Blisfulnesse: Alfred and Chaucer Translate Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy', PhD dissertation (University of Mississippi, 1977).

Sisam, Kenneth. 'The Authorship of the Verse Translation of Boethius's Metra', in Studies in the History of Old English Literature, ed. Kenneth Sisam (Oxford, 1953), pp. 293-7.

Smyth, Alfred P., King Alfred the Great (Oxford, 1995).

Stévanovitch, Colette. 'Envelope Patterns in Translation: the Old English Metres of Boethius', Medieval Translator 6 (1998), 101-13.

Stewart, H. F., Boethius: An Essay (Edinburgh, 1891).

Szarmach, Paul E., 'The Meaning of Alfred's Preface to the Pastoral Care', Mediaevalia: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Medieval Studies Worldwide 6 (1980), 57-86.

———. 'Alfred's Boethius and the Four Cardinal Virtues', in Alfred the Wise: Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occasion of Her Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. Jane Roberts, Janet L. Nelson and Malcolm Godden (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 223-35.

———. 'Alfred, Alcuin, and the Soul', in Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon: Essays on Literary and Cultural Transmission in Honor of Whitney F. Bolton, ed. Robert Boenig and Kathleen Davis (London, 2000), pp. 127-48.

———. 'The Timaeus in Old English', in Lexis and Texts in Early English: Studies presented to Jane Roberts, ed. Christian J. Kay and Louise M. Sylvester, Costerus n.s. 133 (Amsterdam, 2001), pp. 255-67.

———. 'Meter 20: Context Bereft', ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 15, no. 2 (2002), 28-34.

———. 'Editions of Alfred: the Wages of Un-influence', in Early medieval English texts and interpretations: studies presented to Donald G. Scragg, ed. Elaine Treharne and Susan Rosser (Tempe, AZ, 2002), pp. 135-49.

———. 'An apologia for the Meters of Boethius', in Naked Wordes in Englissh, ed. Marcin Krygier and Liliana Sikorska, Medieval English Mirror 2 (Frankfurt am Main, 2005), pp. 107-136.

Taylor, Paul Beekman. 'A Beowulf Analogue in Alfred's Boethius', Notes and Queries n.s. 39 (1992), 264-65.

Thomas, Rebecca. 'The Binding Force of Friendship in King Alfred's Consolation and Soliloquies', Ball State University Forum 29, no. 1 (1988), 5-20.

Treschow, Michael. 'A Study of the Ece word-group, and its use in the Alfredian translations', PhD dissertation (University of Toronto, 1991).

Warrick, Catherine M. 'The Two Translators of the Old English Boethius', PhD dissertation (Indiana University, 1968).

Whitelock, Dorothy. 'The Prose of Alfred's Reign', in Continuations and Beginnings: Studies in Old English Literature, ed. Eric G. Stanley (London, 1966), pp. 67-103.

———. 'William of Malmesbury on the Works of King Alfred', in Medieval Literature and Civilization. Studies in Memory of G. N. Garmonsway, ed. D. A. Pearsall and R. A. Waldron (London, 1969), pp. 78-93.

Wittig, Joseph S., 'King Alfred's Boethius and its Latin Sources: a Reconsideration', Anglo-Saxon England 11 (1983), 157-98.

Wülfing, J. Ernst. 'Zum altenglische Boethius: Zwei briefe von Cardale an Bosworth und von Bosworth an Fox', Anglia 19 (1897), 99-100.

Yoshino, Yoshihiro. 'Poetic Syntax in the Old English Meters of Boethius: a Comparative Study of Verse and Prose', PhD dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, 1984).

———. 'Variation in the Making', in Studies in English Linguistics: a Festschrift for Akira Ota on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, ed. Masatomo Ukaji, Toshio Nakao, Masaru Kajita and Shuji Chiba (Tokyo, 1997), pp. 1277-85.

Zandvoort, R. W., 'Three Notes on King Alfred's Boethius', English Studies 28 (1947), 74-76.

Zimmermann, Otto. 'Über den Verfasser der altenglischen Metren des Boethius', PhD dissertation (University of Greifswald, 1882).

Bibliographies, reference works and manuscript catalogues

Bibliographies

Discenza, N. G., 'Alfred the Great: A Bibliography with Special Reference to Literature', in Old English Prose: Basic Readings, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (New York and London, 2000), pp. 463-502.

Kaylor, Noel Harold, Jr., The Medieval 'Consolation of Philosophy': an Annotated Bibliography, Garland Medieval Bibliographies 7 (New York and London, 1992).

Waite, Greg. Old English Prose Translations of King Alfred's Reign, Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English Literature, Vol. VI (Cambridge, 2000).

Reference works

Cooper, Lane. A Concordance to Boethius (Cambridge, MA, 1928).

Manuscript catalogues

Codices Boethiani: A Conspectus of Manuscripts of the Works of Boethius, ed. Margaret T. Gibson and Lesley Smith. Vol. I, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland (London, 1995).

Codices Boethiani: A Conspectus of Manuscripts of the Works of Boethius, ed. Lesley Smith. Vol. II, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland (London and Turin, 2001).

Codices Boethiani: A Conspectus of Manuscripts of the Works of Boethius, ed. Marina Passalacqua and Lesley Smith. Vol. III, Italy and the Vatican City (London and Turin, 2001).

Annual Symposia

 

English Faculty, Oxford University, 24 July 2003

The Commentary Tradition of Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae and the Sources for the Old English Version

The first of the annual symposia was held in Oxford on 24 July and focused on the textual and commentary tradition of the Latin Boethius and the sources of the Alfredian Boethius.


The following papers were given:

John Brinegar, Virginia Commonwealth University: 'Some sources of the Old English Boethius' [To read the text, click here.]

How to cite this article: Brinegar, John (2004). 'Some sources of the Old English Boethius'. Given at the first annual symposium of The Alfredian Boethius Project, University of Oxford, July 2003. Retrieved from http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/boethius/Symposium2003.html

Nicole Discenza, University of South Florida: 'The Unauthorized Biographies of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius' [To read the text, click here.]

How to cite this article: Discenza, Nicole (2003). 'The Unauthorized Biographies of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius'. Given at the first annual symposium of The Alfredian Boethius Project, University of Oxford, July 2003. Retrieved from http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/boethius/Symposium2003.html

Malcolm Godden, English Faculty, University of Oxford: 'The Latin Commentary Tradition and the Old English Boethius: the present state of the question' [To read the text, click here]

How to cite this article: Godden, Malcolm (2003). 'The Latin Commentary Tradition and the Old English Boethius: the present state of the question'. Given at the first annual symposium of The Alfredian Boethius Project, University of Oxford, July 2003.
Retrieved from http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/boethius/Symposium2003.html

Paul Szarmach, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University: 'Nero in the De Consolatione'

Joe Wittig, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 'Working with the Remigius commentary'

Progress reports were given by Kevin Kiernan (Dept of English, University of Kentucky) on The Electronic Boethius Project and by Malcolm Godden and the other team members on the Alfredian Boethius Project. The programme concluded with a general discussion.

Other participants included:

Mark Griffith, New College, Oxford University

Susan Irvine, University College, London

Rohini Jayatilaka, English Faculty, Oxford University

Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, Dept of English, University of Notre Dame

Nigel Palmer, Dept of German, Oxford University

Malcolm Parkes, Faculty of English, Oxford University

Paolo Vaciago, Dept of Linguistics, Università degli Studi Roma Tre

 

Anglo-Saxon adaptations of the De Consolatione Philosophiae

Second Annual Symposium

English Faculty, Oxford University, 27 July 2004

Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae: the metres

The second of the annual symposia was held in Oxford on 27 July and focused on the metres of Boethius's De Consolatione Philsophiae.

The following papers were given:

Dan Donoghue, Harvard University: 'The enlightened innocence of Franciscus Junius encounters The Meters of Boethius'

Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, University of Notre Dame: 'Ventriloquizing the King'

Emily Thornbury, Churchill College, Cambridge University: 'Hearing the metrical archaisms in Alfred's Meters'

Mark Griffith, New College and Faculty of English, Oxford University: 'Verses quite like "cwen to gebeddan" in The Metres of Boethius'

Joe Wittig, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 'What early glosses on 3 m ix suggest about the "Remigian Commentary" on Consolatio Philosophiae'

 

Reports:
Kevin Kiernan, University of Kentucky: 'The Electronic Boethius Project'

Rohini Jayatilaka, Oxford University: 'Latin Commentaries on Boethius's De Consolatio Philosophiae: problems of transcribing and collating'

Paolo Vaciago, Università degli Studi Roma Tre: 'Latin Commentaries on Boethius's De Consolatio Philosophiae: the manuscripts of the "St Gall" tradition'

Susan Irvine, University College London: 'Editing the Cotton text'

Mark Griffith, Oxford University: 'Editing the metres'

Malcolm Godden, Oxford University: 'Editing the Bodley text; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, lat. 3363; and the influence of Latin commentary on the Old English Boethius'

Aaron Kleist, Biola University, California: 'The use of Boethius in Anglo-Saxon England by Alfred, Aelfric and Lantfred'

 

The programme concluded with a general discussion.

 

Other participants were:

Nicole Discenza, University of South Florida
Alexandra Domingue, Leeds University
Pierre-Eric Monnin, University of Bern, Switzerland
Adrian Papahagi, Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)
Malcolm Parkes, Oxford University
Marina Passalacqua, Università degli Studi Roma Uno
 

 

Anglo-Saxon adaptations of the De Consolatione Philosophiae

Third Annual Symposium

English Faculty, Oxford University, 4 July 2005

Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae: historical and political contexts

The third of the annual symposia was held in Oxford on 4 July and focused on the historical and political contexts for the writing of the Consolation, the Carolingian recovery and the Alfredian translation, and issues of authorship.
 
The following papers were given:

Peter Heather, Oxford University: Theoderic and Boethius

Antonio Sennis, University College London: Carolingian views of Late Antiquity

Mary Garrison, University of York: Alcuin and Boethius

Malcolm Godden, Oxford University: Boethius and Theoderic in the commentaries and the Alfredian adaptation

Susan Irvine, University College London: The authorship of the Alfredian versions and the relationship of prose and verse
 

Other participants included:

Alexandra Domingue, Leeds University
Allen Frantzen, Loyola University
Suzanne Gaertner, Munich University
Mark Griffith, Oxford University
Peter Jackson, Oxford
Rohini Jayatilaka, Oxford University
Kevin Kiernan, University of Kentucky
Rosamond McKitterick, Cambridge University
Henry Mayr-Harting, Oxford University
Malcolm Parkes, Oxford University
Kirsty Saunders, University of York
Roger Wright, University of Liverpool

The Alfredian Boethius Project

Anglo-Saxon adaptations of the De Consolatione Philosophiae

Fourth Annual Symposium

English Faculty, Oxford University, 4 August 2006

The Study and Use of the De Consolatione Philosophiae 790-1100

The participants were:

Dr Richard Dance, Cambridge University
Dr Nicole Discenza, University of South Florida
Alex Domingue, University of Leeds
Mark Faulkner, English Faculty, Oxford
Prof. Vincent Gillespie, English Faculty, Oxford
Prof. Malcolm Godden, English Faculty, Oxford
Dr Mark Griffith, New College, Oxford
Prof. Susan Irvine, English Dept, University College, London
Peter Jackson, Oxford
Dr Rohini Jayatilaka, English Faculty, Oxford
Prof. Stephen McCluskey, University of West Virginia
Prof. Henry Mayr-Harting, Oxford University
Prof. Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, University of Notre Dame
Prof. Malcolm Parkes, Oxford University
Dr Marina Passalacqua, Università degli Studi Roma Uno
Alexandra Ramsden, University of York
Prof. Anton Scharer, University of Vienna
Prof. Paul E. Szarmach, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University
Beth Tovey, English Faculty, Oxford
Dr Paolo Vaciago, Dept of Linguistics, Università degli Studi Roma Tre
Prof. Joseph Wittig, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 

The following papers, presentations and reports were given:
1. Malcolm Godden: Brief account of the Alfredian Boethius project and its progress

2. Rohini Jayatilaka and Susan Irvine: The MSS of the Old English Consolation.

Dr Jayatilaka gave an account of the lost Napier fragment (probably from the earliest known MS of the OE Consolation) and the evidence of Bodleian records for its history and fate; the evidence for the earlier history of the Bodleian and Cotton MSS; and the work that the project has done on the date and methodology of Junius's use of the two MSS before the extensive damage to the later MS in the Cotton fire. Professor Irvine added further information on the reconstruction of the Cotton MS in the 19th century and produced an additional example of fragments misplaced by the reconstructors and hitherto unrecognised. Peter Jackson added information about the other texts in the Cottom MS.

3. Nicole Discenza: 'Her mon mæg giet gesion hiora swæð: Tracks of Boethius in Anglo-Saxon England'.

Dr Discenza described the extensive use of the OE Consolation by Ælfric, Byrhtferth and other Anglo-Saxon writers, and discussed the kind of interest shown by different writers.

4. Alex Domingue: 'A Carolingian Perspective on the Old English Consolation of Philosophy'.

Alex Domingue discussed especially parallels between the work of Eriugena and the OE Consolation, and argued for the importance of the reign and circle of Charles the Bald as a model and influence for the Alfredian circle.

5. Joseph Wittig: 'Repeating, or Rethinking? How Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Scholars Engaged Boethius's Consolatio Philosophiae'.

Using examples from all the glosses on 3m9 of the Latin Consolation in early MSS, Professor Wittig traced the ways in which explicatory comments drawn from writers such as Augustine and Gregory were repeatedly adapted by glossators, and showed how such examples could be used to identify the way in which glosses were transmitted and developed and the relationships of different manuscripts.

6. Stephen McCluskey: Alfredian astronomy.

Professor McCluskey analysed the most important references to astronomy in the OE Consolation, showing how they related to contemporary views of astronomy and its function, and indicating ways in which Boethian allusions were adapted to later perceptions and conditions.

7. Susan Irvine: The prosimetrical version of the OE Consolation.

Professor Irvine reported on her progress in establishing a text of this version, and discussed the ways in which the text may have been divided into books, chapters or other sections, by the author(s) or subsequently.

Mark Griffith: The Metres.

Dr Griffith reported on his progress in analysing the metrics and diction of the OE Metres of Boethius.

Rohini Jayatilaka: Work on the Latin commentary.

Dr Jayatilaka reported on progress in transcribing and collating glosses from all the pre-1100 MSS for the whole text of the Latin Consolation, and emphasised the limitations of traditional divisions into ‘Remigian' and ‘St Gall' types of gloss. [For the full text (in pdf format), click here.]

Malcolm Godden: The Latin Commentary and the Old English text; authorship and kingship.

Professor Godden presented several new examples of close agreement between the OE text and some Latin glosses found especially in a small group of late tenth-century MSS of English origin; noted other evidence for the early English origins of glosses in that group; and argued that the nature of the translation suggested the author was not himself a king but someone familiar with courts and somewhat critical of them. [For the full text (in pdf format), click here.]