The Boecis (original name: Lo poema de Boecis, Occitan: [lu puˈɛmɒ ðe βuˈesis], Catalan: [lu puˈɛmə ðə βuˈesis];[1] "The poem of Boethius") is an anonymous fragment written around the year 1000 CE in the Limousin dialect of Old Occitan, currently spoken only in southern France. Of the hundreds or possibly thousands of original lines, only 257 are now known.[2]
This poem was inspired by the work De consolatione philosophiae of the Latin poet, philosopher and politician Boethius (~480-524).
- ^ Modern standard Catalan spelling: El poema de Boeci. The Catalan language diverged from Old Occitan between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. (See Martí de Riquer, Història de la Literatura Catalana, vol. 1. Barcelona: Edicions Ariel, 1964).
- ^ François Juste Marie Raynouard, Choix des poésies originales des troubadours, Tome II, 1817, p. cxxvij: "Il paraît que ce poëme était d'une longueur considérable; avant de décrire le manuscrit unique qui en a conservé un fragment de deux cent cinquante-sept vers [...]" (It seems that this poem was of considerable length; before I describe the unique manuscript that kept only a fragment 257 lines[...])