Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy
Translated by H. R. James, 1897
What this is
Written in prison in 524 while its author waited to be executed for treason he probably did not commit. Philosophy appears to him as a woman and argues him out of self-pity. For a thousand years it was one of the most read books in Europe; Alfred the Great and Chaucer both translated it.
How it is set
One leaf per book, with the sections numbered inside it as Long numbers them. A section of Marcus is often three lines, and a page holding three lines is not a page.
What is not here
Notes. These books have the text and nothing else at present — no map, no lives, no commentary. The Gospel of St Luke shows what an annotated book looks like on this shelf, and these will follow it. An empty heading is better than invented filler.