The paper focuses on Boëthius’s verses on elements of matter and their properties in the ninth poem of Consolation of Philosophy, Book III. In this poem, while presenting the arrangement and order of the world according to Plato’s Timaeus, Boëthius described the properties of the elements in a way different from standard Platonic tradition. The paper assesses the possibilities of Aristotelian and Stoic influences on Boëthius’s characterization of the elements and the need of a mathematical bond among them. The analysis points out that tith regard to geometric proportion, the transmutation of elements, and cosmology, a more appropriate correspondence to Boëthius’s precise words in Consolation III, m.9 is provided by Stoic theories of the elements.
Marek Otisk (Mon,) studied this question.
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