Of the Consolation of Philosophy
- Title
- Of the Consolation of Philosophy
- Heading
- The Footnote
- Description
- William Caxton printed Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophae (The Consolation of Philosophy) in about 1478, in Latin and in Geoffrey Chaucer’s English translation. It appeared independently in English translation surprisingly few times in the next two centuries This edition was translated and edited by Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston. It is shown here for its multiple footnotes. Glossing was a feature of mediaeval manuscripts which continued into print both as extended glosses surrounding text and as side and shoulder notes. Caxton used printed marginalia in both his editions of the Speculum vitae Christi (‘Mirror of the Life of Christ’, 1484 and about 1489-90). However, notes at the bottom of pages did not appear until the seventeenth century. They entered the Netherlands in the first half of the seventeenth century and were first used in other countries, including England, from the 1680s onwards. They became common in the eighteenth century and are now ubiquitous.
- Author
- Boethius
- Place of Publication
- London
- Publisher
- Awnsham and John Churchill
- Date of Publication
- 1695
- Format
- 8vo
- Century
- 17th
- Illustrations
- Engraving