Mathematician:Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius

Mathematician

Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, and philosopher, who produced editions of some mathematical works which survived to be used throughout Medieval Europe.

Although widely cited as a great scholar, as a mathematician he appears to have been mediocre.

Nationality

Italian

History

• Born: about 480 in or near Rome, Kingdom of Odoacer in the Byzantine Empire (now Italy)
• Died: 524 in Pavia, Ostrogothic Kingdom in the Gothic Empire (now Italy)

Works

Mathematics

• c. 500: De Arithmetica ("On Arithmetic") (an adapted translation of the Introduction to Arithmetic by Nicomachus of Gerasa)
• c. 510: De Musica ("On Music") (based on a lost work by Nicomachus of Gerasa and on Claudius Ptolemy's Harmonica

• A treatise on geometry, extant only in fragments, which appears to be a translation of book $\text I$ of Euclid's The Elements

Logic and Philosophy

Translations

• Porphyry's Isagoge
• In Categorias Aristotelis (Aristotle's Categories)
• De interpretatione vel periermenias (Aristotle's De Interpretatione)
• Interpretatio priorum Analyticorum (two versions): (Aristotle's Prior Analytics)
• Interpretatio Topicorum Aristotelis: Aristotle's Topics
• Interpretatio Elenchorum Sophisticorum Aristotelis: Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations

Commentaries

• c. 504 -- 505: In Isagogen Porphyrii commenta (based on a translation by Marius Victorinus).
• 507 -- 509: In Isagogen Porphyrii commenta (based on Boethius' own translation (507–509).
• c. 509 -- 511:In Categorias Aristotelis
• not before 513: In librum Aristotelis de interpretatione Commentaria minora
• c. 515 -- 516: In librum Aristotelis de interpretatione Commentaria majora
• c. 520 -- 523: In Aristotelis Analytica Priora
• Commentaria in Topica Ciceronis (incomplete: the end the sixth book and the seventh are missing)

Original Treatises

• 505 -- 506: De syllogismo cathegorico
• 515 -- 520? De divisione
• 516 -- 522: De hypotheticis syllogismis
• c. 522 -- 523: De topicis differentiis
• c. 523: Introductio ad syllogismos cathegoricos

• Opuscula Sacra (Theological Treatises)
  • c. 520 -- 521: De Trinitate
  • Utrum Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus de divinitate substantialiter praedicentur (Whether Father and Son and Holy Spirit are Substantially Predicated of the Divinity)
  • Quomodo substantiae in eo quod sint bonae sint cum non sint substantialia bona [also known as De hebdomadibus] (How Substances are Good in that they Exist, when They are not Substantially Good)
  • De fide Catholica
  • Contra Eutychen et Nestorium (Against Eutyches and Nestorius)
  • 524 -- 525: De consolatione Philosophiae

Also known as

He is usually referred to as Boethius.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Boethius (c.475-524)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Boethius (c.475-524)