Un Dit moral contre Fortune: A critical edition of MS Paris, BnF, fr. 25418

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The anonymous fifteenth-century French verse translation of Boethius’s Consolatio Philosophiae, contained in a single known manuscript, Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, fr. 25418, fols 1-74r, is a revised and abridged version of the major French translation, Le Roman de Fortune et de Felicite, edited by Beatrice Atherton as her doctoral thesis for the University of Queensland (1994). The title of the present critical edition is derived from the opening strophe of the reviser’s Prologue: ‘Pour le Tout Poissant honnourer … Contre Fortune … Dez dis Boeece vueil conter C'om dit de Consolacion’, which indicates the Christian didactic purpose intended and expressed in moral lessons for living in this world. Consisting of books I-IV only of the Consolatio, the text lacks the complex philosophical issues of book V and throws into relief the dichotomy of Fortune and Felicity. Pruning of the mythological narratives, historical examples, and nature images by the reviser produced a somewhat lean abrege of Boethius’s thought, but with Christian emphasis. With prudent editing, the translation constitutes a coherent whole and is recognised as one of the thirteen distinct medieval French translations of the Consolatio Philosophiae.