The Science of Dreams in the Middle Ages: "Il De Somniis" by Boezio Dacia

Abstract

 Boethius of Dacia’s opera “De somnis” can be defined as a brief treaty that partially follows the traditional quaestio scheme. It includes a passage that seems to copy Etienne Tempier’s proposition number sixty-five, which condemns the importance attributed to astrology by many medieval authors. Boethius moves off Aristotle’s “De somno et vigilia” idea of physiological dreams to assert a new kind of oneiric phenomena linked to constellations, that, according to the author, aren’t divinely inspired, whereas they are to be considered as natural events. Boethius isn’t the only philosopher who writes about this particular type of dream as another medieval author, Albertus Magnus, in his “Speculum Astronomiae”, describes astrology and its relationship to medicine.