The use of macrobius and boethius in some fourteeth-century commentaries on Virgil

Abstract

Four commentators on Virgil, Nicholas Trevet, Francesco Petrarca, Ciones (Zonus) de Magnali, and Benvenuto da Imola, besides citing an abundant number of classical writers, owed a special debt to the late antique authors, Macrobius and Boethius. From Macrobius they quoted passages of antiquarian and philosophical interest from theSaturnalia and from theCommentarii in Somnium Scipionis. Petrarch in his manuscript of Virgil, the Codex Ambrosianus, Sala dal Prefetto 10/27, was particularly diligent in copying out passages from Macrobius. These are presented in an Appendix to the present article (pp. 14–22). The Virgilian commentators were inspired also by the moral earnestness of theDe Consolatione Philosophiae of Boethius. Themes treated by the commentators include the harmony of the spheres, the descent of the soul into the body through the orbits of the planets, and Platonic elements inAeneid 6. These references help to illustrate the vigor and variety of the Virgilian commentaries and their contribution to the growing humanistic movement of the fourteenth century.