ABSTRACT
The most remarkable fact about the German Consolatio tradition is the hiatus between Notker’s work of the eleventh century and the translations which appeared in the fifteenth century. The fragments and complete manuscripts of the later tradition represent a broad spectrum of translations, in verse or in prose, typical of medieval or early Renaissance approaches. One of Notker’s major concerns was the German language. Using a system of accent marks, he transcribed and preserved the phonetic subtleties of Old High German, and this work is found most thoroughly developed in the Consolatio translation. G. Schepss, in his article, was the first critic to mention similarities between Notker’s comments and a commentary found in the Maihinger manuscript of the British Museum. An article by Benedikt Vollmann discusses Notker’s understanding of the “simplicitas divinae providentiae,” another important Christian concept in Notker’s world view. Such studies provide insight into Notker’s reading of the Boethian text.
