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.
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No other book on this shelf shares a run of seven words with The Consolation of Philosophy that is not a formula. On the evidence of the wording, nothing here quotes it and it quotes nothing here. That is not proof of isolation — this measure cannot cross a translation, so it finds nothing between Virgil and Homer either — but there is no quotation to show.
Of the sixty counted across the shelf, the ones this book names most. A name is counted wherever it is written, whoever is speaking. Each one has a page of its own listing every chapter, in every book, that carries it.
Translator: H. R. James, 1897. Source: Gutenberg 14328.
The text here is H. R. James’ translation, Elliot Stock, 1897, public domain, from Project Gutenberg ebook 14328, set unaltered.
The original alternates prose and verse throughout. This setting keeps the order it came in but does not mark which is which.
Public domain, and free to read, copy and quote. Nothing on this page is written by anyone living: the words are the translator’s and the counts are the text’s.