Western Medieval Manuscripts : De consolatione philosophiae

John Walton

Western Medieval Manuscripts

Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.18 is an early 15th-century Middle English verse translation of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae by John Walton, Canon of Oseney. The manuscript contains the prologue and all five books, but with a number of gaps in the text. De Consolatione Philosophiae was written by Boethius in the 6th century as a dialogue between himself and the allegorical figure of Lady Philosophy. The many translations of Boethius's work into vernacular languages - including into Old English by King Alfred in the late 9th century, and into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century - are a testament to the text's popularity and influence in the Middle Ages.According to Thomas Tanner, in his Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, John Walton was commissioned to produce the translation by Elizabeth Berkeley, daughter of Lord Thomas Berkeley. There are nineteen extant manuscripts containing Walton's translation, including another at Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 3573). In his 1927 edition, Mark Science traces the genealogy of the then fourteen known medieval manuscripts of Walton's translation. Science refers to MS Gg.4.18 as 'C', and classifies it as part of the B group. By conducting a comparative reading of errors across the fourteen manuscripts, Science identifies B as the group of manuscripts closest to the original translation. Other manuscripts in this group include Oxford, New College, MS 319. This copy of Walton's translation is lightly glossed and annotated with conventional forms of marginalia, written by the scribe himself, including corrections and nota bene marks. Rubrics at the beginning and end of each book are written in Latin: for example, 'Explicit prologus' and 'Incipit liber boecii de consolacione philosophie' on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(12);return false;'>3v</a>. So, too, are the headings that mark the beginning of passages of prose / 'prosa' or metre / 'metrum' in the Latin original (the Middle English translation being written in verse throughout). The Latin incipits are furthermore reproduced alongside these headings. There appears, then, to have been an expectation that readers would possess enough Latin literacy at least to understand simple markers relating to the text's structure, but potentially also to be reading the Middle English translation as an accompaniment to the Latin original. Other, readerly marginalia are present, including two expressions of subjective engagement with the text in Book Two during the later 15th or early 16th century. On f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(46);return false;'>20v</a>, against the line 'Me semeth well suche wordes myght she say' in Book Two, Prosa Two, the reader has added the comment 'very good Readynge'. Later, on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(72);return false;'>33v</a>, in Book Two, Metrum Six, against the line 'Thys Nero did þat Rome on fayr set', the reader has noted: 'Reade agayne'. The direct reference to the act of reading, the use of the imperative verb form and the expression of an opinion indicates a reader who was actively engaged with the text. The instruction to 'Reade agayne' might have arisen as a result of the complex discussion at this point between Boethius and Lady Philosophy on the question of whether whether good fortune is the cause rather than the reward of wickedness.Anni Haahr Henriksen St. Catharine's College, 2018 Revisions and additions by Dr James Freeman Medieval Manuscripts Specialist Cambridge University Library (2024)