A rare 16th-century volume of three of the works of Roman senator and consul Boethius. The three treatises presented here, De Arithmetic, De Musica, and De Geometria were foundational textbooks in medieval studies. De Musica, which is divided into five parts, is one of the earliest printed texts on harmony and proportion.

According to the Schoenberg Institute for the Manuscript Study at the University of Pennsylvania, "While Boethius’ De consolatione philosophiae was often reprinted, his other works including these three were less frequently copied in the Renaissance. Nevertheless, the De musica was included in the first printed edition of Boethius’ works, in Venice in 1491 and '92 and remained a fundamental reference work on music theory and harmonics. The work put forward the influential notion of a tripartite division of musical types: the imperceptible music of the spheres, the spiritual and somatic music of the body, and the audible instrumental music of voice and instrument".

Boethius was a historian and philosopher, and one of the leading Christian scholars of the sixth century. As a writer, his primary goal was to preserve Greek wisdom and he worked unceasingly to translate Greek works into Latin. His translations played a vital role in the transmission of Classical knowledge in the Middle Ages.

Boethius was imprisoned and executed for conspiracy. While awaiting execution he wrote his best-known work, De consolatione philosophiae. It has been a famous classic example of “prison literature” for over a thousand years.