Little is known with certainty concerning the life of Boethius of Dacia. Scandinavian in origin, likely Danish, Boethius was identified as a leader of the "radical Averroists" or "heterodox Aristotelians" who taught at the University of Paris in the turbulent early 1270s. Though his birth date is unknown, Boethius certainly was a member of the arts faculty at Paris around 1270. There his impassioned defense of the autonomy of philosophical reason earned the suspicion of more conservative theologians, who included several theses taken from Boethius's writings in the condemnations promulgated by the bishop of Paris Stephen Tempier in 1277. Unlike his contemporary Siger of Brabant, Boethius was never called to face the royal inquisition to defend his philosophical positions. He may have entered the Dominican order some time after 1273, since the so-called Stams Catalogue of Dominican works includes a list of his writings.

If the life of Boethius remains obscure...