Boethius's Opera

Boethius's Opera
Joannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis de Forlivio, 1491-2
BOETHIUS (c.477-524). Opera. Venice: Joannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis de Forlivio, (I) 18 August 1492, (II) 26 March 1491.

First collected edition of Boethius’s works, including the first printing of De musica. The texts present here include the Roman philosopher’s works on mathematics, philosophy, and logic; De musica is one of the earliest printed texts on harmony and proportion. A public servant under Theodoric the Great, Boethius would later be imprisoned and executed for conspiracy. His work as a translator and commentator played a vital role in the transmission of Classical knowledge in the Middle Ages. The treatise he wrote while awaiting execution, De consolatione philosophiae, has been a classic of “prison literature” for over a thousand years. This copy was formerly owned by the rector of Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City. H 3351*; GW 4511; BMC V 341, XII 25; BSB-Ink B-618; Bod-inc B-382; IGI 1816; Klebs 192.1; Smith(RaraAr) p. 28; Goff B-767; ISTC ib00767000.

Two parts in one, chancery folio (297 x 200mm). 352 leaves. Greek and Roman types. Incipits of first two sections printed in red. Numerous woodcut musical and mathematical diagrams (some soiling and staining, a few small marginal repairs, faint dampstaining, some wormholes in text; final leaf laid down). Modern brown morocco with 18th-century title piece on spine. Provenance: marginalia – Reverend Morgan Dix (1827-1908, American theologian and rector of Trinity Church, New York; gift inscription dated 1898 from William Bispham, a fellow Grolier club member).