Nicholas Trevet and the Consolation of Prophecy

This chapter examines the writings of Nicholas Trevet, the English Dominican whose work was influential at the beginning of the fourteenth century both at the new centre of power in papal Avignon and in early Italian humanist circles during the height of turmoil over radical Franciscans and Joachimism. Trevet was suspicious of predictive claims, and he combined this suspicion with an attentiveness to prophetic language and philosophical discernment of the workings of time and providence. Developed especially in his commentaries on Boethius and on Seneca’s tragedies, Trevet’s model of prophecy had affinities with literary talent and intellectual ability and was indicative of trends within both the Dominican Order and the Avignon papal court.