Beinecke MS 38                                                      France, s. XIV/XV
Boethius Fr. tr. Renaut de Louhans

          ff. 1r-55v    [Author's Prologue consisting of eighteen 8-line
     stanzas; his name is spelled by the first letter of each stanza:]
     Fortune mere de tristesce/ de douleur et de affliction/...[text begins
     on f. 2r:] Ci parle boece au commencement du primier liure. Je souloye
     jadis penser/ dicter ensaigner et escripre/...[epilogue ends:] Il en
     sera tout elerement/ Fait cy apres Rebrichement.

          As Renaut de Louhans states in the prologue, his work incorporates
     material from a commentary on Boethius made by another member of the
     Dominican order (Nicholas Trevet) as well as his own digressions. See
     F. Nagel, Die altfranzoesische Uebersetzung der Consolatio philosophiae
     des Boethius von Renaut von Louhans (Halle, 1890); R. H. Lucas,
     "Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500,"
     Speculum
     45 (1970) p. 232; R. A. Dwyer, Boethian Fictions: Narratives in the
     Medieval French Versions of the De Consolatione Philosophiae
     (Cambridge, Mass., 1976) p. 130, no. 9. Critical edition in preparation
     by J. K. Atkinson (see Speculum 56 [1981] p. 227).

          Parchment, ff. i (paper) + 55 + i (paper), 282 x 205 (225 x 145)
     mm. Written in 2 columns of 33 lines; three single vertical bounding
     lines, one at the left edge of each column and one along outer of edge
     of folio; single horizontal bounding lines; all full across. Ruled in
     lead; prickings in upper, lower and outer margins, for bounding lines
     only.
          I-V^^10, VI^^2, VII^^6 (-4, 5, 6). Catchwords in lower margins within
     decorative rectangle, on verso; some quire-marks (e.g., bi, bii, etc.)
     in lower right corner, on recto.
          Written in batarde by a single scribe.
          Two intricate penwork initials, 5-line, on ff. 1r and 2r in red
     and blue; less detailed penwork initials, 3-line, in same colors
     throughout text; first letter of each verse stroked in red.
          Binding: s. xvii-xviii. Brown spattered calf, with peculiarly
     striped turn-ins. Title, in gold, on spine: BOECE EN VER FRANC.

          Written in France at the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th
     century; early provenance unknown. Purchased by Stanley W. Childs in
     1932 from Goldschmidt's (Cat. 26, appendix, no. 203A) for the Albert H.
     Childs Memorial Collection.

     secundo folio: Par enuie qui

     Bibliography: De Ricci, v. 1, p. 170, no. 38; Faye and Bond, p. 25, no.
     38.

     Barbara A. Shailor