Description
Book SynopsisChaucer's translation of Boethius' work is related to medieval intellectual culture, with attention to Trevet's Boethius commentary.This collection seeks to locate the
Boece within the medievaltradition of the academic study and translation of the
Consolatiophilosophiae, thereby relating the work to the intellectual culturewhich made it possible.It begins with the fullest study yet undertakenof the Boethius commentary of Nicholas Trevet, this being a majorsource of the
Boece. There follow editions and translationsof the major passages in Trevet's commentary whereNeoplatonic issuesare confronted, then Chaucer's debt to Trevet is assessed in a detailedreview. The many choices which faced Chaucer as a translator are indicated and the
Boeceis placed in a long line of interpreters of Boethius in which both Latin commentators and vernacular translators played their parts. Finally, a view is offered of the
Boece as anexample of late-medieval `academic translation': if the
Boeceis assigned to this genre, it may be judged a considerable success.
Trade ReviewThe scholarship in this book is exemplary, and hits its narrowly defined targets with bull's eyes. NOTES AND QUERIES [James Simpson]For most Chaucerians the piece on Chaucer's translation of the Boecewill be the most important part of this book, but this should in no way diminish its importance in the scholarship on the medieval tradition of Boethius to which it makes a significant contribution. ENGLISH STUDIESA fine book... impressive in its authorial and editorial accuracy and its philological thoroughness. * ANGLIA *
Table of Contents"More Platonica loquitur" - what Nicholas Trevet really did to William of Conches, A.J. Minnis and Lodi Nauta; extracts from Trevet's commentary on Boethius - texts and translations - Latin texts, E.T. Silk, translations, A.B. Scott; Chaucer's commentator - Nicholas Trevet and the "Boece", A.J. Minnnis; the "Boece" as late-medieval translation, A.J. Minnis and Tim William Machan. Appendices: the 13th-century revision of William of Conches's commentary on Boethius, Lodi Nauta; Trevet's use of the Boethius commentary tradition, Lodi Nauta.
