|
This manuscript contains a philosophical treatise describing the truth as the means of finding relief from misfortune and despair. The author of the text is Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 480-c. 525), a statesman, philosopher and eminent scholar. This text appears in numerous illuminated manuscripts during the late Middle Ages. The present copy in Paris is one of the finest examples.
The miniatures were executed by an artist who owes his byname, Boethius Master, to the illustration of this work. His works are among the finest, purest and most delicate creations of 15th-century French book illumination.
The miniature on folio 40r shows the author Boethius seated in a sparsely furnished room, faced by the personification of Philosophy, who in turn points to a female figure standing in the doorway. This figure may be identified as the Janus-headed Prudentia. Her double face corresponds to the two faces of the capricious Goddess of Fortune. The motif of the wheel of fortune in the right-hand portion of the miniature symbolizes the fickle nature of luck.
| 