Boethius and the Historiography of Philosophy

Philosophy as the fundamental bass of history.

Boethius was the right man in the right place at the right time for his handful of translations of Greek philosophy into Latin to shape European philosophy in the early Middle Ages before the recovery of the complete Aristotelian corpus.

John the Scot was an outlier early medieval philosopher writing when few other philosophers were active. He was from Ireland and mostly worked in northern Europe. There about 21 copies of his most systematic philosophical work, the Perphysion, in European libraries, with the farthest west copy at El Escorial in Spain and the farthest south copy in Milan. Because John the Scot was writing at a time when writing was rare, much less writing philosophical treatises, because he was writing in a less populated geographical region, and because his work was condemned no less than three times, at the Councils of Valencia (855), Langres (859), and at Sens (1225), the reach of his works was limited. His influence didn't make it to Portugal, Scandinavia, southern Italy, or anywhere in the Slavic world.

After his fall from political power, he was falsely accused of crimes and sentenced to death, and while in prison awaiting his execution, he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy.

It was printed in the late 15th century (technically making it "incunabula," which is the curious term applied to books printed between 1450 and 1500).