The Church Fathers · c. 524
The Consolation of Philosophy
De Consolatione Philosophiae
Boethius · c. 477–524
What it is
Written in prison awaiting execution on a false charge. Lady Philosophy visits the condemned man and works him through fortune, happiness, providence, and how human freedom survives divine foreknowledge.
Why it lasted
The most widely read book in medieval Europe after the Bible, translated by Alfred the Great, Chaucer, and Elizabeth I. Its account of eternity as the whole possession of limitless life at once is still the standard one.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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