gical, and historical works; but shows himself to have lacked a sound judgment. The list of Latin authors in this century may be well closed by two very learned men, the illustrious Boëthius, a philosopher, orator, poet, and theologian, who was second to no one of his times for elegance and acuteness of genius'; and M. Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, who was, indeed, inferior in many respects to the former, yet no contemptible 8 [Isidorus Hispalensis, or junior, was the son of Severian, præfect of Carthagena in Spain, and brother of Fulgentius, bishop of Carthagena, and of Leander, whom he succeeded A. D. 595, as bishop of Seville. He presided in the council of Seville in 619, and in that of Toledo A. D. 633, and died A. D. 636. He was a voluminous writer; and has left us a Chronicon, from the creation to A. D. 626; Historia Gothorum, Vandalorum, et Suecorum; Originum, sive Etymologiarum libri xx.; de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, (a continuation of Jerome and Gennadius, embracing twenty-three writers); de Vita et Morte Sanctorum utriusque Testamenti Liber; de Dicinis, sive ecclesiasticis Officiis, libri ii.; de Differentiis, sice proprictate Verborum, libri ii.; Synonymorum, sice soliloquiorum, libri" ii. ; de Natura Rerum, sive de mundo, Liber philosophicus; Liber præmirum ad libros utriusque Testamenti; Commentaria in libros historicos Veteris Test. (a compilation); Allegoriarum quarundam S. Scripturae liber; contra nequitiam Judæorum, libri ii.; Sententiarum, sire de summo bono, libri iii.; Regula Monachorum; de Conflictu vitiorum et cirtutum liber; Expositio in Cantica Canticorum; several Epistles and minor treatises. To him is falsely ascribed a collection of councils and decretals. His works were best published, Paris, 1601. fol., and Cologne, 1617. fol. Tr.] [Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boëthius, born of an illustrious family at Rome, about A. D. 470, was sent in his childhood to Athens for education, where he spent eighteen years; and then returned to Rome the most learned man of the age. He was consul in the years 510 and 522. Soon after his return to Rome, he was made a patrician, and admitted to the senate. When Theodoric king of the Goths entered Rome, A. D. 500, Boëthius was appointed by the senate to address him. The king soon after made him one of his council, and master of his palace. After faithfully serving the king and his country for more than twenty years, he was in 523 falsely accused of a treasonable correspondence, condemned on suborned testimony, and sent to Pavia, where he was kept in close confinement a year or more, and then privately put to death by order of the king. He was a voluminous writer. Besides more than forty books of translations and commentaries on Aristotle, Porphyry, and Cicero, he wrote two books on arithmetic, five books on music, two books on geometry, and several tracts against the Eutychians, Nestorians, and other errorists. But his most famous work was de Consolatione Philosophiae libri v. written while in prison at Pavia. This was translated into Saxon by Alfred the Great, (printed, Oxford, 1698 ;) and into English by Chaucer, and by queen Elizabeth. It was composed partly in verse and partly in prose; and has the form of a dialogue between Boëthius himself and Philosophy personified; who endeavours to console him with considerations, derived not from christianity, but from the doctrines of Plato, Zeno, and Aristotle. The works of Boëthius were published with notes, Basil, 1570. fol. See Cave, Hist. Litterar. tom. i. p. 495, &c.; and Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philos. tom. iii. Gervaise, Histoire de Boëce, Paris, 1715. 2 vols. 8vo.; and Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. vol. xvi. p. 99- 121. Tr.-A new edition of king Alfred's Boëthius, by J. S. Cardale, was printed at London, with an English translation, and notes, in 1829. Ed.] |