Known more commonly as Boethius, this philosopher lived in the last days of the Roman empire under an Ostrogoth king. Though he is most widely known for his Consolation of Philosophy, written in a prison in Pavia, to my mind he is much more important for bringing the work of Aristotle, via his translations and commentary on Porphyry, to the Medieval world, and in particular, the concept of "Porphyry's tree" as the structure and categorization of things in the world. Think of it as a mind map for Medieval thought. As Wikipedia summarizes, "The Isagoge, or "Introduction" to Aristotle's "Categories", written by Porphyry in Greek and translated into Latin by Boethius, was the standard textbook on logic for at least a millennium after his death."
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