BOETHIUS: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR STUDENTS
Philip Edward Phillips
(Middle Tennessee State University)
This bibliography includes selected primary works in English translation and useful secondary
literature on the life, works, and influence of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c.A.D. 480524/25). It is intended primarily for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the
humanities. Those desiring a more extensive bibliography of primary and secondary works—
including the range of primary texts in Latin as well as secondary literature in various
languages—are advised to consult Luca Obertello, “Biografia boeziana. Bibliographia
generale,” in Severino Boezio, Vol. 2 (Genova, 1974); Joachim Gruber, “Boethius 1925-1998,”
in Lustrum. Internationale Forschungsberichte aus deim Bereich des klassichen Altertums 39
(1997), pp. 307-83, and 40 (1998), pp. 199-259; and Philip Edward Phillips, “Anicius Manlius
Severinus Boethius: A Chronology and Selected Annotated Bibliography,” in A Companion to
Boethius in the Middle Ages, eds. Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. and Philip Edward Phillips
(Companions to the Christian Tradition) 30 (Leiden, 2011), forthcoming.
PRIMARY WORKS
Complete Latin Works
Manlii Severini Boethii Opera omnia, Patrologia cursus completus, Series latina, 63-64, Ed. J.-P.
Migne (Paris, 1882, 1891).
The Consolation of Philosophy
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Boethius: The Theological Tractates; The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. and eds. H. F.
Stewart, E. K. Rand, and S. J. Tester, (Loeb Classical Library) 74 (Cambridge, Mass.,
1973).
Cicero, On Fate, and Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy IV 5-7, V, ed. R. W. Sharples
(Warminster, 1991).
The Old English Boethius: An Edition of the Old English Version of Boethius’s De Consolatione
Philosophiae, 2 vol., eds. Malcolm Godden and Susan Irvine (Oxford, 2009).
Boece, in The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd ed., ed. Larry D. Benson (Boston, 1987), pp. 395-469.
The Consolation of Queen Elizabeth I: The Queen’s Translation of Boethius’s De Consolatione
Philosophiae, eds. Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. and Philip Edward Phillips, (MRTS) 366
(Tempe, 2009).
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. P.G. Walsh (Oxford, 1999)
Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Joel Relihan (Indianapolis, 2001)
De institutione arithmetica
Boethian Number Theory: A Translation of the “De institutione arithmetica,” trans. and ed.
Michael Masi (Amsterdam, 1983).
De institutione musica
Boethius: Foundations of Music, trans. Calvin M. Bower and ed. C.V. Palisca (New Haven,
1989).
The Logical Works
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Magee, John, ed. and trans., Anicii Manlii Severini Boethii “De divisione liber,” (Philosophia
Antiqua) 77 (Leiden, 1998).
Ammonius: On Aristotle’s On Interpretation 9; with Boethius: On Aristotle’s On Interpretation
9, first and second commentaries, trans. David Blank and Normann Kretzmann (Ithaca,
1998.
Boethius’s In Ciceronis Topica, trans. Eleonore Stump (Ithaca, 1988).
Boethius’s De topicis differentiis, trans. Eleonore Stump (Ithaca, 1978).
The Theological Works
Boethius: The Theological Tractates; The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. and eds. H.F.
Stewart, E.K. Rand, and S.J. Tester, (Loeb Classical Library) 74 (Cambridge, Mass.,
1973).
Boethian Commentaries
George, David B., and John R. Fortin, O.S.B., eds., The Boethian Commentaries of Clarembald
of Arras, (Notre Dame Texts in Medieval Culture) 7 (Notre Dame, 2002).
Schultz, J.L., and E.A. Synan, eds., An Exposition of the “On the Hebdomads” of Boethius,
(Washington, D.C., 2001).
SECONDARY WORKS
Astell, Ann W., Job, Boethius, and Epic Truth (Ithaca, 1994).
Asztalos, Monika, “Boethius as a Transmitter of Greek Logic to the Latin West: The
Categories,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 95 (1993), 367-407.
Balint, Bridget K., Ordering Chaos: The Self and the Cosmos in Twelfth-Century Prosimetrum
(Leiden, 2009).
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Barrett, Helen M., Boethius: Some Aspects of his Times and Work (Cambridge, UK, 1940; repr.
New York, 1965).
Benedict XVI, “On Boethius and Cassiodorus,” catechesis given at St. Peter’s Basilica at the
weekly general audience in Paul VI Hall on March 12, 2008; Zenit.org, March 13, 2008.
Available online at http://www.zenit.org/article-22041?l=english
Bower, Calvin, “Boethius and Nichomachus: An Essay Concerning the Sources of De
institutione musica,” Vivarium 16 (1978), 1-45.
Carpenter, Nan Cooke, Music in the Medieval and Renaissance Universities (Norman,
Oklahoma, 1958).
Chadwick, Henry, Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy
(Oxford, 1981).
_____, “Theta on Philosophy’s Dress in Boethius,” Medium Aevum 49.2 (1980), 175-79.
Chamberlain, David S., “Philosophy of Music in the Consolatio of Boethius,” Speculum 45.1
(1970), 80-97.
Cherniss, Michael D., Boethian Apocalypse: Studies in Middle English Vision Poetry (Norman,
Oklahoma, 1987).
Courcelle, Pierre, Late Latin Writers and Their Greek Sources, trans. Harry Wedeck
(Cambridge, MA, 1969).
Curley, T. F., “The Consolation of Philosophy as a Work of Literature,” American Journal of
Philology (1987), 343-67.
De Rijk, Lambert M., “On the Chronology of Boethius’ Works on Logic. I and II," Vivarium 2
(1964), 1-49; 125-62.
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De Vogel, Cornelia J., “Boethiana I,” Vivarium (1971), 59-66; “Boethiana II,” Vivarium (1972),
1-40.
Discenza, Nicole Guenther, The King’s English: Strategies of Translation in the Old English
Boethius (Albany, 2005).
Donaghey, Brian, “The Post-Medieval English Translations of the De Consolatione Philosophiae
of Boethius, 1500–1800,” in The Medieval Translator/Traduire au Moyen Age, vol. 5, ed.
Roger Ellis and René Tixier (Turnhout, 1996), pp. 302–21.
Dronke, Peter, Verse with Prose from Petronius to Dante: The Art and Scope of the Mixed Form
(Cambridge, MA, 1994).
Dürr, Karl, The Propositional Logic of Boethius, (Studies in Logic and the Foundations of
Mathematics) (Amsterdam, 1951).
Dwyer, Richard A., Boethian Fictions: Narratives in the Medieval French Versions of the
Consolatio Philosophiae (Cambridge, MA, 1976).
Ebbesen, Sten,“Boethius as an Aristotelian Commentator,” in Aristotle Transformed: The
Ancient Commentators and Their Influence, ed. Richard Sorabji (Ithaca, NY, 1990), pp.
373-92.
Frakes, Jerold C., The Fate of Fortune in the Early Middle Ages: The Boethian Tradition,
(Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters) 23 (Leiden, 1988).
Fuhrmann, Manfred, and Joachim Gruber, eds., Boethius, (Wege der Forschung) 483 (Darmstadt,
1984).
Galonnier, Alain, ed., Boèce ou la chaîne des savoirs : Actes du colloque internationale de la
Fondation Singer-Polignac Paris, 8-12 juin 1999, (Philosophes Médiéveaux) 44
(Leuven, 2003).
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Gibson, Margaret, ed., Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence (Oxford, 1981).
Glei, Reinhold F, Nicola Kaminski, and Franz Lebsanft, eds., [Boethius Christianus? The
Reception of Boethius’ “Consolatio Philosophiae” in the Middle Ages and Early Modern
Age] (Berlin, 2010).
Green-Pedersen, Niels Jørgen, The Tradition of the Topics in the Middle Ages: The
Commentaries on Aristotle’s and Boethius’ Topics (Munich, 1984).
Gruber, Joachim, Kommentar zu Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae (Berlin, 1978; rev. and
repr., 2006).
Gualtieri, Angelo, “Lady Philosophy in Boethius and Dante,” Comparative Literature 23.2
(1971), 141-50.
Hoenen, Maarten, and Lodi Nauta, eds., Boethius in the Middle Ages: Latin and Vernacular
Traditions of the Consolatio Philosophiae (Leiden, 1997).
Jefferson, Bernard L., Chaucer and “The Consolation of Philosophy” (Princeton, 1917).
Kaylor, Noel Harold, Jr., The Medieval Consolation of Philosophy: An Annotated Bibliography
(New York, 1992).
_____ and Philip Edward Phillips, eds., New Directions in Boethian Studies, (Studies in
Medieval Culture) 45 (Kalamazoo, 2007).
Lerer, Seth, Boethius and Dialogue (Princeton, 1985).
Magee, John, “The Boethian Wheels of Fortune and Fate,” Medieval Studies 49 (1987), pp. 52433.
_____, “Boethius’ Consolatio and the Theme of Roman Liberty,” Phoenix 59 (2005): 348-364.
_____, Boethius on Signification and Mind, (Philosophia Antiqua) 52 (Leiden, 1989).
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_____, “On the Composition and Sources of Boethius’ Second Peri Hermeneias Commentary,”
Vivarium 48 (2010), 7-54.
Marenbon, John, Boethius, (Great Medieval Thinkers) (Oxford, 2003).
_____, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Boethius (Cambridge, 2009).
Masi, Michael, ed., Boethius and the Liberal Arts: A Collection of Essays, (Utah Studies in
Literature and Linguistics) 18 (Bern, 1981).
McInerny, Ralph, Boethius and Aquinas (Washington, DC, 1990).
Minnis, Alastair J., Chaucer’s Boece and the Medieval Tradition of Boethius (Cambridge, 1993).
_____, ed., The Medieval Boethius: Studies in the Vernacular Translations of De Consolatione
Philosophiae (Cambridge, UK, 1987).
Moorhead, John, Theodoric in Italy (Oxford, 1992).
Nash-Marshall, Siobhan, Participation and the Good: A Study in Boethian Metaphysics (New
York, 2000).
Obertello, Luca A.M., ed., Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Studi Boeziani, Pavia, 5-8
ottobre 1980 (Rome, 1981).
O’Donnell, James J., The Ruin of the Roman Empire (New York, 2008).
O’Daly, Gerard, The Poetry of Boethius (Chapel Hill, 1991).
Papahagi, Adrian, Boethiana Mediaevalia: A Collection of Studies on the Early Medieval
Fortune of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (Bucharest, 2010).
Patch, Howard Rollin, “Fate in Boethius and the Neoplatonists,” Speculum 4 (1929), 62-72.
_____, The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature (Cambridge, Mass., 1927).
_____, “Necessity in Boethius and the Neoplatonists.” Speculum 10 (1935), 393-404.
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_____, The Tradition of Boethius: A Study of His Importance in Medieval Culture (New York,
1935).
Payne, F. Anne, King Alfred and Boethius: An Analysis of the Old English Version of the
Consolation of Philosophy (Madison, 1968).
Phillips, Philip Edward, “Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae and the
Lamentatio/Consolatio Tradition,” Medieval English Studies 9.2 (2001), 5-27.
_____, “The English Consolation of Philosophy: Translation and Reception,” Carmina
Philosophiae 17 (2008), 97-126.
_____, “Lady Philosophy’s Therapeutic Method: The ‘Gentler’ and the ‘Stronger’ Remedies in
Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae,” Medieval English Studies 10.2 (2002), 5-26.
Race, William H., The Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius (Leiden, 1982).
Radding, Charles M., “Fortune and Her Wheel: The Meaning of a Medieval Symbol,”
Mediaevistik 5 (1992), 127-38.
Rand, E.K., “Boethius, the First of the Scholastics,” in Founders of the Middle Ages (Cambridge,
MA, 1928; repr. New York, 1957), pp. 135-80.
Reiss, Edmund, Boethius, (Twayne’s World Authors) 672 (Boston, 1982).
Relihan, Joel C., The Prisoner’s Philosophy: Life and Death in Boethius’s Consolation (Notre
Dame, 2007).
Robinson, Phoebe, “Dead Boethius: Sixth-Century Accounts of a Future Martyr,” Viator 35
(2004), 1-19.
Scott, Jamie, Christians and Tyrants: The Prison Testimonies of Boethius, Thomas More, and
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (New York, 1995).
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Shanzer, Danuta, “The Death of Boethius and The Consolation of Philosophy,” Hermes (1984),
352-66.
Shiel, James, “Boethius’ Commentaries on Aristotle,” Medieval and Renaissance Studies 4
(1958), 217-44; repr. in Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and Their
Influence, ed. Richard Sorabji (Ithaca, 1990), pp. 349-72.
Silk, E. T., “Boethius’ Consolatio Philosophiae as a Sequel to Augustine’s Dialogues and
Soliloquia,” Harvard Theological Review 32 (1939), 19-39.
Silvestre, H., “Review of F. Troncarelli, Tradizione perdute,” Scriptorium 38 (1984), 170-172.
Speca, Anthony, Hypothetical Syllogistic and Stoic Logic, (Philosophia Antiqua) 87 (Leiden,
2001).
Stewart, Hugh Fraser, Boethius: An Essay (Edinburgh, 1891).
Stump, Eleonore, “Boethius’s Work on the Topics,” Vivarium 12 (1974), 77-93.
Wiltshire, Susan Ford, “Boethius and the Summum Bonum,” The Classical Journal 67 (1972),
216-20.
Encyclopedia Articles
Magee, John, “Boethius,” in The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, ed. Lloyd
Gerson, (Cambridge, forthcoming in 2011), Ch. 43, pp. 788-812.
Marenbon, John, “Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius,” in The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta (2005; Fall 2008 Edition). Available online:
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/boethius/.
Stump, Eleonore, “Boethius,” in Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy, eds. Donald Zeyl, Daniel
Devereux, and Phillip Mitsis (Westport, 2004), pp. 114-17.
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Academic Journal
Carmina Philosophiae: Journal of the International Boethius Society (ISSN 1075-4407), edited
by Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. and Philip Edward Phillips. Web site of the journal and the
International Boethius Society:
http://www.mtsu.edu/english/Journals/boethius/carmina_philosophiae/index.shtml.
Online Boethian Resources
Kirchenlexikon
St. Andrews University
Encyclopedia Britannica
New Catholic Encyclopedia
University of Virginia Library
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