Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 7280
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Denny-Brown , Andrea.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: How Philosophy Matters: Death, Sex, Clothes, and Boethius [Lady Philosophy’s garment has an important symbolic significance, yet Boethius still depicts it as a material object. The materiality of Philosophy’s garment unsettles her supposed status as a purely immaterial abstraction. The corporeal status of her sexually-violated body and the gaps in her garment align her with the Muses of Poetry, negating a perception of Philosophy as pure, perfect, or whole. Her imperfect garment and female body thus symbolize human loss, corruption and mortality. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Clothwork, and Other Cultural Imaginings.  Edited by E. Jane Burns.  Palgrave, 2004.  Pages 177 - 191.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Allegory Body in Literature Boethius, Philosopher- De Consolatione Philosophiae Classical Influences Clothes in Literature Death in Literature Feminist Theory Latin Literature Literature- Prose Literature- Verse Muses in Literature Personification Philoso
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 6
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: One Figure. Figure One Manuscript illustration depicts Boethius seated at a ~~bed with Lady Philosophy standing beside him (MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Français 1098, fol 2v). Philosophy is depicted as a wealthy aristocratic~~woman wearing a luxurious dress and an elaborate headdress.
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  • Author's Affiliation: University of California, Riverside
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2004.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 1403961867