Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, communément appelé Boèce /bo.ɛs/, né vers 480 à Rome, mis à mort en 524 à Pavie par Théodoric le Grand, est un philosophe et homme politique latin. Il est l'auteur de la réputée Consolation de Philosophie, œuvre néoplatonicienne dans laquelle la poursuite de la sagesse et l'amour de Dieu sont décrits comme les véritables sources du bonheur. Contemporain de Cassiodore et de Clovis Ier, il est témoin des derniers feux de l'Empire romain. Il a transmis la logique aristotélicienne en Occident et constitue une source importante de la philosophie médiévale.
“In every adversity of fortune, to have been happy is the most unhappy kind of misfortune.”
Nam in omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum est genus infortunii fuisse felicem.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose IV, line 2
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book II
“For he that is fallen low did never firmly stand.”
Qui cecidit, stabili non erat ille gradu.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem I, line 22; translation by W.V. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book I
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Christopher Callahan (October 2000), Music in Medieval Medical Practice: Speculations and Certainties https://symposium.music.org/index.php/40/item/2168-music-in-medieval-medical-practice-speculations-and-certainties#16 <br class="br">De Institutione Musica
“Who fain would sow the fallow field,
And see the growing corn,
Must first remove the useless weeds,
The bramble and the thorn.”
Qui serere ingenuum uolet agrum
liberat arua prius fruticibus,
falce rubos filicemque resecat,
ut noua fruge grauis Ceres eat.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem I, lines 1-4; translation by H. R. James
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book III
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Tr. George Colville (1556); source https://books.google.com/books?id=649EAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA129 <br class="br">The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book V
“If you would give every man as he deserves, then love the good and pity those who are evil.”
Vis aptam meritis uicem referre:
Dilige iure bonos et miseresce malis.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem IV, lines 11-12; translation by Richard H. Green
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book IV
“Wherefore not without cause has one of your own followers asked, "If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good?"”
Unde haud iniuria tuorum quidam familiarium quaesiuit: `si quidem deus', inquit, `est, unde mala? Bona uero unde, si non est?
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose IV, line 30; translation by W.V. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book I
“Who hath so entire happiness that he is not in some part offended with the condition of his estate?”
Quis est enim tam compositae felicitatis ut non aliqua ex parte cum status sui qualitate rixetur?
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose IV, line 12
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book II
“Thou seest, then, in what foulness unrighteous deeds are sunk, with what splendour righteousness shines. Whereby it is manifest that goodness never lacks its reward, nor crime its punishment.”
Videsne igitur quanto in caeno probra volvantur, qua probitas luce resplendeat? In quo perspicuum est numquam bonis praemia, numquam sua sceleribus deesse supplicia.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose III, line 1; translation by H. R. James
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book IV
“O happy race of mortals,
if your hearts are ruled
as is the universe, by Love!”
O felix hominum genus,
si uestros animos amor
quo caelum regitur regat!
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem VIII, lines 28-30; translation by W. V. Cooper
Alternate translation:
: How happy is mankind
if the love that orders the stars above
rules, too, in your hearts.
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book II
“Who can give law to lovers? Love is a greater law to itself.”
Quis legem det amantibus?
Maior lex amor est sibi.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem XII, lines 47-48
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book III
“For if vicious propensity is, as it were, a disease of the soul like bodily sickness, even as we account the sick in body by no means deserving of hate, but rather of pity, so, and much more, should they be pitied whose minds are assailed by wickedness, which is more frightful than any sickness.”
Nam si uti corporum languor ita vitiositas quidam est quasi morbus animorum, cum aegros corpore minime dignos odio sed potius miseratione iudicemus, multo magis non insequendi sed miserandi sunt quorum mentes omni languore atrocior urguet improbitas.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose IV; line 42; translation by H. R. James
Alternate translation:
For as faintness is a disease of the body, so is vice a sickness of the mind. Wherefore, since we judge those that have corporal infirmities to be rather worthy of compassion than of hatred, much more are they to be pitied, and not abhorred, whose minds are oppressed with wickedness, the greatest malady that may be.
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book IV
“By first recognizing false goods, you begin to escape the burden of their influence; then afterwards true goods may gain possession of your spirit.”
Tu quoque falsa tuens bona prius
incipe colla iugo retrahere:
Vera dehinc animum subierint.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem I, lines 11-13; translation by Richard H. Green
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book III
“Nothing is miserable but what is thought so, and contrariwise, every estate is happy if he that bears it be content.”
Adeo nihil est miserum nisi cum putes, contraque beata sors omnis est aequanimitate tolerantis.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose IV, line 18
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book II
“Thus, where'er the drift of hazard
Seems most unrestrained to flow,
Chance herself is reined and bitted,
And the curb of law doth know.”
Sic quae permissis fluitare videtur habenis
Fors patitur frenos ipsaque lege meat.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem I, lines 11-12; translation by H. R. James
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book V
“When she [Philosophy] saw that the Muses of poetry were present by my couch giving words to my lamenting, she was stirred a while; her eyes flashed fiercely, and said she, "Who has suffered these seducing mummers to approach this sick man? Never do they support those in sorrow by any healing remedies, but rather do ever foster the sorrow by poisonous sweets. These are they who stifle the fruit-bearing harvest of reason with the barren briars of the passions: they free not the minds of men from disease, but accustom them thereto."”
Quae ubi poeticas Musas uidit nostro assistentes toro fletibusque meis uerba dictantes, commota paulisper ac toruis inflammata luminibus: Quis, inquit, has scenicas meretriculas ad hunc aegrum permisit accedere, quae dolores eius non modo nullis remediis fouerent, uerum dulcibus insuper alerent uenenis? Hae sunt enim quae infructuosis affectuum spinis uberem fructibus rationis segetem necant hominumque mentes assuefaciunt morbo, non liberant.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose I, lines 7-9; translation by W.V. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book I
“If first you rid yourself of hope and fear
You have dismayed the tyrant's wrath:
But whosoever quakes in fear or hope,
Drifting and losing his mastery,
Has cast away his shield, has left his place,
And binds the chain with which he will be bound.”
Nec speres aliquid nec extimescas,
exarmaueris impotentis iram;
at quisquis trepidus pauet uel optat,
quod non sit stabilis suique iuris,
abiecit clipeum locoque motus
nectit qua ualeat trahi catenam.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem IV, lines 13-18
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book I
“But if you think that life can be prolonged by the breath of mortal fame, yet when the slow time robs you of this too, then there awaits you but a second death.”
Quodsi putatis longius vitam trahi
mortalis aura nominis,
cum sera vobis rapiet hoc etiam dies
iam vos secunda mors manet.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Poem VII, lines 23-26; translation by W. V. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book II
“If you expect a physician to help you, you must lay bare your wound.”
Si operam medicantis exspectas, oportet vulnus detegas.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose IV, line 1; translation by W.V. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book I
“I see how happiness and misery lie inseparably in the deserts of good and bad men.”
Video, inquam, quae sit vel felicitas vel miseria in ipsis proborum atque improborum meritis constituta.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose V, line 1; translation by W.V. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book IV
“What place can be left for random action, when God constraineth all things to order?”
Quis enim cohercente in ordinem cuncta deo locus esse ullus temeritati reliquus potest?
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Prose I; translation by H. R. James
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book V
“Man is a two-footed reasoning animal.”
HOMO EST ANIMAL BIPES RATIONALE
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
