Boethius and the Spiritual Exercises. Observations to the first two carmina of the Consolation of Philosophy

Abstract

This brief article aims at rescuing some hermeneutical clues in the first two carmina of the first book of Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae. I will try to show that the first two poems are not only a biographical and thematic introduction to the work, but also constitute an introduction to the very philosophical problem of the consolatio from the contraposition of rival proposals of spiritual exercises.