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>About this tripartite division. >It seems that Boetius starts his (sorry, dont know the English word) >"Consolation (?)" by discussing it. Dear Marina, You may be thinking of the primary division of Philosophy into Practical and Theoretical, which is signified in the description of Lady Philosophy in Bk.I pr.1, "On the lower border [of her dress] was woven the Greek letter Pi, and on the upper Theta, and between the two letters steps were marked by a ladder, by which one might climb from the lower letter to the higher." Later commentators had a field day with this, especially as it gets tied up with discussions about the Seven Liberal Arts. I have collected a few references that may be of use: An early reference is the <De Mundi Celestis Terrestrisque Constitutione> which was ascribed to Bede and printed in Migne vol.90, where there is a discussion of the division of the sciences now thought to be a later accretion. See the modern edition by C.Burnett, london, Warburg Institute, 1985. Remigius of auxerre discussed the Liberal Arts in his commentary on Martianus Capella--see C.Lutz, "Remigius' Idea on the Classification of the Seven Liberal Arts", <Traditio>, 12 (1956), pp.65-86. In the 12 cent. William of Conches discussed the division of the sciences; there is an old edition of this part of his commentary on Boethius in C.Jourdain, "Des Commentaires Ine/dits de Guillaume de Conches et de Nicholas Triveth sur la Consolation de Philosophie de Boe\ce", in <Excursions Historiques et Philosophiques a\ travers le Moyen Age>,Paris 1888, vol 2 pp.31-68 (the Appendix, pp.57-60). You may also want to check an article "La Filosofia e le Artes Mechanicae nel secolo XII" in <Studi Medievale> 3rd series 6 (1965)--sorry, I haven't the author's name to hand.and G.Ovitt, "The Status of the Mechanical Arts in Medieval Classifications of Learning", <Viator> 14 (1983), pp.89-105. There were one or two vernacular discussions too. One is in the prologue to John of Antioch's translation of Cicero <De Inventione> (completed in Acre for Guillaume de St Estienne, a member of the Order of St John of Jerusalem). This was printed by L.Delisle, <Notices et Extraits>, 36 Paris 1899) but I don't have the exact page references. There are two 15th cent examples in English: one is a sophisticated but idiosyncratic analysis by Reginald Pecock in his <Folower to the Donet>, ed. E.V.Hitchcock, EETS 164, 1924, pp. 46-50. The other, I'm afraid, is still unpublished but it's in a little Middle English commentary on Bk.I of Boethius which I am currently editing. I hope these references are of interest to you and others. Brian Brian Donaghey - Dept of English Language & Linguistics - Ext 6291 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%