Dear Carolyn,
Boethius has been mentioned before, and you will find the wheel of fortune
(Haec nostra vis est, hunc continuum ludum ludimus: rotam volubili orbe
versamus, infima summis, summa infimis mutare gaudemus) in _De consolatione
philosophiae_, lib. II, prose II, where Philosophia speaks under the mask of
Fortuna. There is a rich bibliography about this subject, and maybe the
following of the can provide the kind of early references you are looking for:
PATCH Howard Rollin
The Goddess Fortuna in Mediaeval Literature. Cambridge
(Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1927; Repr. New York:
Octagon Books, 1967; London: Frank Cass and Co., 1967
[I. The Philosophy of Fortune; II. Traditional Themes of F.
in Mediaeval Literature; III. Functions and Cults; IV. The
Dwelling-Place of F., V. F.'s Wheel; Conclusion; Biblio-
graphy; Index]
MASON Emma
Magnates, Curiales and the Wheel of Fortune. In:
*Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo Norman Stu-
dies, 2, 1979, ed. R. Allen Brown, Woodbridge (Engl.): Boy-
dell Press, Totowa (N.J.) Rowman and Littlefield, 1980,
p.118-140
*IL TEMA DELLA FORTUNA
Il tema della Fortuna nella letteratura francese e italiana
del rinascimento. Miscellanea in memoria di Enzo Giudici.
Firenze: Olschki, 1990 (= BAR I/228), xx+550 p.
Yours,
Otfried
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