Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius 
Consolation of Philosophy 

The Consolation of Philosophy was, throughout the Middle Ages and down to the beginnings of the modern epoch in the sixteenth century, the scholar’s familiar companion. Few books have exercised a wider influence in their time. It has been translated into every European tongue, and into English nearly a dozen times. The great work of Boethius, with its alternate prose and verse, skilfully fitted together like dialog and chorus in a Greek play, is unique in literature and ought not to be forgotten.