This image marks the start of Boethius's De Arithmetica, a treatise on mathematics. Boethius is shown instructing a young boy in arithmetic. The student's wax tablets (wooden boards covered in wax) are filled with numbers. Students could write on and reuse the surface of a tablet by covering it with new wax. Boethius (c. 480-524 or 525 AD, born in Rome), was a philosopher of the early 6th century, who also wrote about music, astronomy, geometry, and arithmetic. Painted by the illustrator known as Virgil Master in Paris, France. This manuscript illustration dates from about 1405. Tempera colors, gold paint, gold leaf, and ink on parchment.