Call for Papers - Leeds International Medieval Congress - 5-8 July 2027

CFP: BOETHIUS AND COMMUNITIES

The International Boethius Society is an organisation which has, since 1992, promoted scholarship on all aspects of the work, influence and age of Boethius, especially through the IBS journal, Carmina Philosophiae.

The challenges of how properly to critique, rethink, make and organise a community and not least how to be a virtuous member of one – are central to the problematics, authority and distinctiveness of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae and the tradition it brought about throughout medieval Europe over several centuries. For the proposed session(s), focusing on the IMC 2027 theme of Communities, we warmly invite papers from all disciplinary perspectives on any aspect of communities relating to Boethian tradition. Proposals falling outside this theme are also invited.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words and a short biography of no more than 150 words to Ian Johnson irj@st-andrews.ac.uk by 23 September. All proposals should include your name, e-mail address and academic affiliation. Proposals are welcome from researchers at any career stage. Please address any queries to Ian Johnson at the above e-mail address.

Sponsor: International Boethius Society

Organiser: Ian Johnson, University of St Andrews

Call for Papers - ICMS at Kalamazoo - 2027

The International Boethius Society is delighted to announce its two sponsored panels for the ICMS at Kalamazoo next May! Abstracts are due September 15th. 

Boethius as "Last of the Romans, First of the Scholastics" (submit proposal here) 

Boethius’s position as a transitional figure, situated on the boundary between Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, is the focus of this session, which invites papers that address his liminal historical position. Possible topics include his contributions to the liberal arts curriculum; his role in theological and political controversies; his biography and its dissemination; his tomb and local cult in Pavia; the textual transmission of his works; his translation projects from Greek into Latin; and the vernacular translation tradition of his final work De consolatione philosophiae. 

Literary Reception of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae (submit proposal here) 

This session addresses the multi-faceted influence of the Consolatio on medieval Latin and vernacular writers such as Dante, Alain de Lille, Guillaume de Machaut, Gower, and Chaucer. Papers are welcome on such topics as their use of prosimetric form; deployment of the trope of Fortune and her wheel; engagement with the work’s philosophical argumentation; and use of allegory. This robust reception history continues in the works of modern-day writers influenced by medievalism, and papers are equally welcome on the Boethian resonances of works such as C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce and John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces.

Kaylor Receives Inaugural IBS Honorary Membership Award

Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., International Boethius Society Founder, and Philip Edward Phillips, IBS Executive Director

At the International Boethius Society information session/business meeting held on June 8, 2026, at the Thirteenth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University, IBS Executive Director Philip Edward Phillips presented Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. with the Society’s inaugural Honorary Membership Award on behalf of the membership, executive committee, and trustees. This award, created in 2025, recognizes members in good standing for "significant and sustained contributions to Boethian studies" and "exemplary dedication to the Society’s goals.” 

Kaylor is the founder of the IBS (at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo in 1992) and former Executive Director (1992-2025). Now Executive Director Emeritus, he is a former editor of Carmina Philosophiae: Journal of the International Boethius Society and the author, editor, and co-editor of numerous major publications on Boethius—from The Medieval Consolation of Philosophy: An Annotated Bibliography (Garland, 1992) to Remaking Boethius: The English Language Translation Tradition of The Consolation of Philosophy (Brepols/ACMRS, 2019)—as well as scholarly editions of English translations of the Consolatio by John Bracegirdle (ACMRS, 1999) and Queen Elizabeth I (2009).

New IBS Secretary

Murton Appointed IBS Secretary

On behalf of the Officers, Trustees, and membership of the International Boethius Society (IBS), I am pleased to announce the appointment of Megan Murton as IBS Secretary, effective immediately. A longtime, active member of the Society, Murton is an associate professor of English and the Director of Graduate Studies for English and Medieval Studies at the Catholic University of America, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Middle English literature, especially Chaucer. Her research focuses on Chaucer’s engagement with religious and philosophical concerns, with particular attention to the decisive role of Boethius in Chaucer’s early reputation as a “noble philosophical poete.” In addition to several articles on Boethian influence in Chaucer’s poetry, including ones published in Carmina Philosophiae, she has written on the Middle English translation tradition of the Consolation of Philosophy. Her first book is Chaucer’s Prayers: Writing Christian and Pagan Devotion (D.S. Brewer, 2020), and she is currently preparing a second book on Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde as a narrative reinvention of the Consolation. We are grateful to her for accepting this important officer position and dedicating herself to the advancement of Boethian studies worldwide.

Philip Edward Phillips
Executive Director
International Boethius Society

Boethian Matters: A Call for Papers for the 2026 SMRS

Boethian Matters: A Call for Papers 

2026 Symposium of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Saint Louis University, June 8-10, 2026

The optional theme for the 2026 SMRS is Materiality, and the International Boethius Society seeks papers which may speak to this theme as well as others. The materiality of Lady Philosophy’s dress, the way the Consolation of Philosophy draws attention to its materiality through the prosimetric form, Boethius’s philosophy of the value of material goods, the question of the relationship of the material universe to eternity, and his treatment of Porphyrian and Aristotelian classifications of materiality in the logical works are all just a few possible topics one may explore in the fascinating range of concepts to which the theme of materiality might speak. Papers on any topics which address the question of Boethius’s life, times, works, and influence (in philosophy, literature, theology, art, and history) are also welcome. 

Please send your abstracts of 250-350 words with accompanying CV to Anthony G. Cirilla, Co-editor of Carmina Philosophiae: The Journal of the International Boethius Society, at acirilla@cofo.edu by December 29, 2025.

Leeds & Kalamazoo - Call for Papers - 2026

 

Leeds International Medieval Congress

CALL FOR PAPERS

Boethius and Temporalities

The challenges of time, eternity and transience – and knowing how to understand and face them – are central to the problematics and the creativity of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae and the tradition it brought about throughout medieval Europe over several centuries. For the proposed session(s), focusing on the IMC 2026 theme of Temporalities, we warmly invite papers from all disciplinary perspectives on any aspect of temporalities relating to Boethian tradition. Proposals falling outside this theme are also invited.
 
Please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words and a short biography of no more than 150 words to Ian Johnson irj@st-andrews.ac.uk by 19 September. All proposals should include your name, e-mail address and academic affiliation. Proposals are welcome from researchers at any career stage. Please address any queries to Ian Johnson at the above e-mail address.
 
Sponsor: International Boethius Society
Organiser: Ian Johnson, University of St Andrews

Kalamazoo 2026

CALL FOR PAPERS

1. Boethius, Theology, and the Liberal Arts in Late Antiquity (Session)
2. Medieval Afterlives of Boethius's Consolatio (Roundtable)

The International Boethius Society will sponsor both a paper session and a roundtable session in Kalamazoo in 2026. See the announcements, details, and links below:

1. Our IBS-sponsored session titled Boethius, Theology, and the Liberal Arts in Late Antiquity (ID: 7437) has been accepted for inclusion at the 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 14 - 16, 2026).

Best known for his De consolatione philosophiae, its transmission, reception, influence, and many vernacular translations, Boethius also contributed significantly to the liberal arts and to the theological debates of his time and later. To consider Boethius "whole" and “in context,” this session seeks papers on any aspect of the Boethian corpus, including his quadrivial works, translations, commentaries, Opuscula sacra, and Latin Consolatio.

 

2. Our IBS-sponsored roundtable Medieval Afterlives of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae (A Roundtable) (ID: 7471) has been accepted for inclusion at the 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 14 - 16, 2026). 

This roundtable concerns the medieval afterlives of Boethius’s Consolatio, from its translation and transmission to the many texts and images it influenced and inspired. Submissions are invited from scholars working on any topic related to Boethian reception, including translations, the medieval Consolatio tradition more broadly, Boethian philosophy, prosimetric reimaginations, or imagining new allegorical characters. Although most papers will touch upon Latin material, papers addressing reception in relevant vernacular languages are encouraged. Possible topics may include—but are not limited to—literary borrowing, imitation, inheritance, translation, and textual transmission.

Proposals for contributions to these two in-person sessions are due September 15 through the Confex portal. The two CFPs may be accessed below:

https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Index/SponsorList~International%20Boethius%20Society.

If you have any technical questions about using Confex, please contact icms@confex.com; questions about the Congress in general may be sent to medieval-institute@wmich.edu. 

Congress CFPs: https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.

Cirilla Appointed Co-editor of Journal

The International Boethius Society (IBS) is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Anthony G. Cirilla (College of the Ozarks) from the position of Associate Editor to the position of Editor (alongside Kenneth C. Hawley, Editor) of Carmina Philosophiae: Journal of the International Boethius Society, effective July 10, 2025.

Carmina Philosophiae (CarmP) is an annual, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of Boethius, his age, and his influence, now in its thirty-fourth year of production. It is published by the Society in cooperation with the Association for Textual Studies and Production and with the generous support of Lubbock Christian University. The journal features full-length articles, review essays, manuscript editions, translations, and book reviews. As of 2018, all back issues of the journal are available on JSTOR and EBSCO.

Dr. Cirilla, who earned his Ph.D. at Saint Louis University, is associate professor of English at College of the Ozarks (Branson, MO). In addition to serving most capably as the journal’s associate editor, he has published widely in Boethian studies, including essays in The Journal of the Medieval Association of the Midwest (2015), The Legacy of Boethius in Medieval England: The Consolation and its Afterlives, ed. A. Joseph McMullen and Erica Weaver (2018), and Carmina Philosophiae’s special issue (2023/2024) commemorating the 1500-year anniversary of Boethius’s death. That volume was the product of the mini-conference that he organized on behalf of the Society at Saint Louis University in conjunction with the Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 

He is currently completing a book on the topic of Boethius’s Christianity, Sanctifying Philosophy: Boethius and the Consolation of a Quiet Faith, which is forthcoming from Davenant Press. 

Philip Edward Phillips, Ph.D.
Executive Director, International Boethius Society

Phillips Named Executive Director of the International Boethius Society

The International Boethius Society welcomes Philip Edward Phillips (Middle Tennessee State University) as its new Executive Director. Upon accepting his appointment by outgoing Executive Director Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., on July 9, 2025, he named Professor Kaylor Executive Director Emeritus and promoted Anthony G. Cirilla from associate editor to co-editor (with Kenneth C. Hawley) of Carmina Philosophiae. A charter member of the Society, Professor Phillips has served as its Corresponding Secretary (1992-1996), editor of the IBS Newsletter (1995-2002), co-editor (with Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr.) of Carmina Philosophiae (1996-2014), and Secretary (1996-2025). The author of “Boethius” in Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies (Oxford, 2017) and editor of Prison Narratives from Boethius to Zana (Palgrave, 2014), Professor Phillips was co-editor (with Professor Kaylor) of five books on Boethius. He is grateful to Professor Kaylor for his lifelong commitment to the advancement of Boethian studies, from founding the Society to supporting emerging scholars, and he looks forward to working with the officers, trustees, and members of the Society to continue to promote the study of Boethius worldwide.

Kaylor Retires as Executive Director of the International Boethius Society

The International Boethius Society expresses its profound respect and appreciation to Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., upon his retirement as Executive Director of the IBS and co-editor of Carmina Philosophiae, effective July 8, 2025. Professor Kaylor founded the Society and ratified its Constitution at Kalamazoo on May 9, 1992. He subsequently served as the Society’s Executive Director from 1992-2025 and as the co-editor of its journal (with Philip Edward Phillips) from 1996-2014 (Volume 5/6 to 23) and (with Kenneth C. Hawley) from 2015-2025 (Volume 24 to 32/33). His contributions to the field of Boethian studies have been enormous, from the publication of his foundational The Medieval Consolation of Philosophy: An Annotated Bibliography (Garland, 1993) to his many important co-edited collections and editions, especially The Consolation of Queen Elizabeth I (ACMRS, 2009) and A Companion to Boethius in the Middle Ages (Brill, 2012), as well as numerous articles and editions related to Boethius and Chaucer. He appointed Professor Phillips to succeed him. Professor Kaylor, now our Executive Director Emeritus, is devoting his time to the completion of an important book, The Trojan War Tradition, and to other book-length projects in progress.

The International Boethius Society Welcomes Ian Johnson as New President

The International Boethius Society (IBS) warmly welcomes longtime member and Boethian scholar, Professor Ian Johnson, as our new president. Johnson accepted his new position at our IBS business meeting held on June 10, 2025, at the Twelfth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (SMRS) at Saint Louis University.

Johnson is Professor of Medieval Literature and a member of the Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of St Andrews. He co-directed the Queen’s Belfast-St Andrews AHRC-funded project Geographies of Orthodoxy (2007-11). With Alastair Minnis, he edited The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume II. The Middle Ages (2005). His other major publications include The Middle English Life of Christ (2013), The Pseudo-Bonaventuran Lives of Christ, ed. with Allan Westphall (2013), The Impact of Latin Culture on Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Writing, ed. with Alessandra Petrina (2018), Geoffrey Chaucer in Context (ed. 2019), and Literary Theory and Criticism in the Later Middle Ages, ed. with Ardis Butterfield and Andrew Kraebel. 

A contributor to Brill’s A Companion to Boethius in the Middle Ages (2012) and Vernacular Traditions of Boethius’s De consolation philosophiae (2016), both edited by Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., and Philip Edward Phillips, he is currently working on a study of the translation of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae in late medieval England and Scotland. Ian Johnson is our fifth president—following Margaret Gibson, Michael Masi, J. Keith Atkinson, and Paul E. Szarmach—since the Society’s founding in 1992.

Philip Edward Phillips, IBS Secretary

Fabio Troncarelli - New Book

International Boethius Society Trustee Fabio Troncarelli has just published a volume on Living Memory: Boethius, Cassiodorus, and the Consolation of Philosophy, Brill - V&R Press, 2025, with 63 figures.

Fabio Troncarelli examines the Late Antique Cassiodorus edition of the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius in this study consisting of five chapters. The first one is a brief sketch of the biography of the two protagonists of the story. The second is about the medieval copies of the edition, some very close to the original archetype, preserving even its formal aspect and the indication of its first transcription in Ravenna in the 6th century. The third chapter establishes a comparison between some typical rhetorical, philosophical or editorial methods by Cassiodorus and the ones we find in the Boethius' edition. The fourth chapter explains what could have been the reasons for Cassiodorus to make such an edition, in the years of the breakdown of the Osthrogotic rule in Italy. The last chapter is about the afterlife of Boethius' reputation in Vivarium and the relationships between his murder and Amalsuntha's murder established by the Vivarian monks. (from the publisher's description: available on Amazon)

12th Annual SMRS - 2025 CFP

Boethius at the 12th Annual Symposium of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Saint Louis University

June 9-11, 2025

The International Boethius Society seeks papers for panels on Boethian scholarship to be hosted by the Symposium of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, at Saint Louis University in Saint Louis, MO, on June 9-11, 2025. We are particularly interested in papers which examine The Consolation of Philosophy in translation and literary reception, as well as papers which explore teaching Boethius in a variety of contexts. However, papers exploring any aspect of Boethius's corpus and influence are welcome. 

Please submit paper abstracts of about 300 words to Anthony G. Cirilla at acirilla@cofo.edu by December 25, 2024. Also please consider joining the International Boethius Society to help support our efforts to promote Boethius scholarship.

11th Annual Symposium on Medieval & Renaissance Studies

 Boethius 2024: The 1500 Year Memorial Conference

St. Louis University - June 10-12, 2024 

We had some wonderfully insightful and engaging presentations at our Boethius Mini-Conference.

Below are a few photos, and the program for our sessions is provided on our Conferences page.

Plenary Address, Stephen Blackwood, Ralston College

William Christian, Anthony G. Cirilla, Jane Maschue, & Gary Hartenburg

Discussion

Ethan Smilie, Madeline Fox, & Camarie Cirilla

Ian Johnson, Jennifer Arch, Abigail Palmisano, & Nicholas Babich

Jane Maschue, William Christian, Joshua Keatley, & Savannah Xaver

Megan Murton, Ian Johnson, Melinda Nielsen, & Ian Cornelius

Lea Luecking Frost

Margaret Trenchard-Smith

Boethius 2024: The 1500 Year Memorial Conference at SMRS

11th Annual Symposium on Medieval & Renaissance Studies

Boethius 2024: Mini-Conference Sponsored by the International Boethius Society

​

In 524, Boethius authored the Consolation of Philosophy on the eve of his unjust execution. Fifteen centuries later, Boethius remains a figure of inspiration and fascination in his own right, and as a profoundly influential figure through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond. In 2024, this memorial conference will consider that wide ranging legacy, hosted at the Symposium of Medieval and Renaissance Studies held annually at St. Louis University in June. The International Boethius Society has had a presence at the SMRS since the symposium started and is pleased to organize this memorial to the life, works, and influence of a writer who shaped medieval and Renaissance thinkers so profoundly.

We look forward to this special mini-conference at the Symposium and will be providing updates soon on the featured presentations and sessions that the International Boethius Society is organizing for this event.

58th International Congress on Medieval Studies (2023)

Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae in the Middle Ages

Sponsoring Organization: International Boethius Society

Organizer: Philip Edward Phillips (Middle Tennessee State University)

Presider: Philip Edward Phillips (Middle Tennessee State University)

Lindsay Ruth Ragle-Miller (University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill), Fate and Fortune: Word Choice in the Old English Boethius

Ricardo Matthews (California State University - Fullerton), The Missing Song: Boethius and the Prosimetric Tradition

Matthew W. Brumit (University of Mary), Boethius's Four Modes of Knowing in Pearl

Sarah R. Kyle (Iowa State University), "To mount the narrow seat": A Physician's Transformation of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae in a Fifteenth-Century Illustrated Herbal

It was so rewarding to be back in person on the Western Michigan University campus--what a great and enjoyable session! The presentations were just fantastic, and they fit together so very well. Here are a few photos of our session: the preliminary remarks about the Society, the panel taking Q&A, and the presenters posing with our organizer and presider, Dr. Philip Phillips. 

Kenneth Discussing our Journal, Carmina Philosophiae

Q&A with Ricardo, Lindsay, Sarah, and Matthew

Philip, Ricardo, Lindsay, Sarah, and Matthew

57th International Congress on Medieval Studies (2022)

The Alfredian or Old English Boethius: Authority, Authorship, and Influence - In Memory of Paul E. Szarmach

Sponsoring Organization: International Boethius Society

Organizer: Philip Edward Phillips (Middle Tennessee State University)

Presider: Rhonda L. McDaniel (Middle Tennessee State University) 

Ruta Sileikyte Zukiene (Vilniaus University/Vytauto Didžiojo University), The Authority of Reason in the Old English Boethius

Kenneth C. Hawley (Lubbock Christian University), The Power and Personality of the Eternal God in the Alfredian Boethius

We had a wonderful Zoom session again this year and enjoyed a lively and interesting discussion with our attendees after the presentations. We are grateful for the support staff who made this remote gathering possible.

Call for Papers - 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies

57th International Congress at Kalamazoo

Online, May 9-14, 2022

Call for Papers

The Alfredian or Old English Boethius: 

Authority, Authorship, and Influence in Memory of Paul E. Szarmach 

Contact Person: Philip Phillips philip.phillips@mtsu.edu

Principal Sponsoring Organization: International Boethius Society

Proposals for twenty-minute papers addressing the issues of "authority" or "authorship" in respect to the Alfredian or Old English Boethius and/or the subsequent reception or influence of the work are invited for presentation in a session dedicated to the memory of Paul E. Szarmach.

Deadline for New Submissions: Wednesday, September 15, 2021

 

2021 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES

The Literary & Philosophical Influence of Boethius in the Middle Ages

Sponsoring Organization: International Boethius Society

Organizer: Philip Edward Phillips (Middle Tennessee State University)

Presider: Kenneth C. Hawley (Lubbock Christian University)

Clelia Vittoria Crialesi (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies), Exigetical and Philosophical Uses of Boethius’s De arithmetica in the Carolingian Age: Rabanus Maurus and John Scotus Eriugena on Sap. 11:21

David Sharp (Carleton University), Boethian Counsel and Richard the II’s Minority in Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls

Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. (International Boethius Society), Teaching the Consolation of Philosophy in the Context of World Literature

We are grateful to the Medieval Institute and to their support staff for making this unusual format work so well. We had a stimulating set of presentations and an engaging discussion following. Although we missed our gathering in Kalamazoo, we enjoyed connecting with those from across the globe who joined our session panelists, who happened to log on from Ontario (David), Texas (Kenneth), Montana (Harold), France (Clelia), Tennessee (Philip), and Michigan (IT Support).

Below are 2 screenshots of our Zoom session--the first featuring our presenters and session leaders during the pre-session preparation and the second showing our panel audience. 

Carmina Philosophiae: The Journal of the International Boethius Society

Volumes 28 & 27 (2017/2018)

Special Double Issue

INTRODUCTION

Geoffrey Chaucer's Boece Rendered into Modern English
TOM POWERS

TRANSLATION 

Geoffrey Chaucer's Boece Rendered into Modern English
(Facing Page: 1868 Edition - Translation)
TOM POWERS

REVIEWS

The Consolation of Philosophy as Cosmic Image, by Myra L. Uhlfelder
M. W. BRUMIT

The Consolation of Philosophy as Poetic Liturgy, by Stephen Blackwood
MEGAN MURTON

Remaking Boethius: The English Language Translation Tradition of The Consolation of Philosophy, Ed. Brian Donaghey, Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., Philip Edward Phillips, and Paul Szarmach
ANTHONY G. CIRILLA


** VOLUME 28 (2019) COMING SUMMER 2021! **

Remaking Boethius: The English Language Translation Tradition of The Consolation of Philosophy

 

Edited by Brian Donaghey, Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr,. Philip Edward Phillips, and Paul E. Szarmach, with assistance from Kenneth C. Hawley

Brepols and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies published this reference work in 2019. It accounts for every English version of Boethius’s 6th-century Latin original, including not only the 24 complete translations from the 9th century to the 21st, but also 24 partial translations and a number of other spurious, mislabeled, or lost versions. The cover image on the book is from a 1695 translation in the collection held by the Brian S. Donaghey Center for Boethian Studies. Remaking Boethius is a testament to the late Professor Donaghey's tireless service to the International Boethius Society.

For more on this volume, please see http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503584676-1.