Originally published in 1992 The Medieval Consolation of Philosophy is an annotated bibliography looking at the scholarship generated by the translations of the works of Boethius. The book looks at translations which were produced in medieval England, France, and Germany and addresses the influence exercised by Boethius, which extended into almost every area of medieval intellectual and artistic life. The book acts in two ways, as a whole the book acts as a bibliography and study of the European tradition of Consolatio translations, but viewed on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it is a collection of independent bibliographies on the individual vernacular traditions. The book contains separate chapters looking at the Consolatio traditions of medieval France and Germany.

Originally published in 1992 The Medieval Consolation of Philosophy is an annotated bibliography looking at the scholarship generated by the translations of the works of Boethius. The book looks at translations which were produced in medieval England, France, and Germany and addresses the influence exercised by Boethius, which extended into almost every area of medieval intellectual and artistic life. The book acts in two ways, as a whole the book acts as a bibliography and study of the European tradition of Consolatio translations, but viewed on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it is a collection of independent bibliographies on the individual vernacular traditions. The book contains separate chapters looking at the Consolatio traditions of medieval France and Germany.

Vernacular Traditions of Boethius's "De consolatione philosophiae" provides an overview of the widespread reception and influence of Boethius's masterpiece in England and Germany, as well as in the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Catalonia, and Byzantium. As this work demonstrates, Boethius is not only a significant Roman author but also a significant translator and adaptor of works written originally in Greek, placing him firmly as an important figure at the moment of transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. As the two introductory articles in this collection affirm, Boethius is recognized as "the last of the Romans" and the "first of the Scholastics." Attested by the articles and the edition in this volume, Boethius's modern influence is global in its importance, not only through the dissemination of his theological and scholalry works, but through the many vernacularizations of his final testament to the world, his Consolatio.

The twelve essays in this volume proceed from a modern fantasy-epic back in time to oral epics that have been transmitted through the technology of manuscripts, and central in the collection are two articles that address Chaucer's Middle English courtly epic, Troilus and Criseyde. Each, in its own way, presents a global perspective on its subject, whether by comparing texts, by considering textual transmission through translation, or by contrasting medieval issues with developing global movements. . . . These articles are presented as evidence of the international cooperation that has been fostered by the work of Paul Szarmach in the international community of medievalists and of the success of his vision in opening up the borders of a discipline that too long has been Eurocentric and not global in its perspective. - from the Introduction

This volume is a reference work, organized chronologically in its sections, with a separate entry for each translator's work. The sections are defined by the type of translations they comprise. The plan of the book is encyclopedic in nature: some biographical material is provided for each translator; the translations are described briefly, as are their linguistic peculiarities, their implied audiences, their links with other translations, and their general reception. Sample passages from the translations are provided, and where possible these samples are taken from two of the most well-known moments in the Consolatio: the appearance of Lady Philosophy, narrated by the Prisoner, and the cosmological hymn to the Deus of the work, sung by Lady Philosophy. Where possible, an attempt also has been made to keep the general appearance of the original printed pages. Orthographic peculiarities (in spelling, capitalization, indentation, etc.) except for the elongated "s" have been maintained. Notes inserted by the translators or editors upon the passages transcribed in this volume are maintained as footnotes. These notes are included because they reveal much about the scholarship that the translators bring to their work of translating. The notes signal the translators' familiarity with commentaries and earlier Consolatio translations, and they help to identify the types of audiences targeted by the translators (whether general or scholarly). The notes indicate points in the text (either grammatical or cultural) that translators or editors deemed needful of clarification for their readers, but the notes often also represent actual borrowings of notes, sometimes verbatim, from earlier translations. Such "borrowed notes" help to establish or verify lines of affiliation between the translations.