Research Catalog

Title

Lucretius and the early modern / edited by David Norbrook, Stephen Harrison, and Philip Hardie.

Publication

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Norbrook, David, 1950-
• Harrison, S. J.
• Hardie, Philip R.

Description

xiii, 313 pages; 23 cm

Summary

The rediscovery in the fifteenth century of Lucretius' De rerum natura was a challenge to received ideas. The poem offered a vision of the creation of the universe, the origins and goals of human life, and the formation of the state, all without reference to divine intervention. It has been hailed in Stephen Greenblatt's best-selling book, The Swerve, as the poem that invented modernity. But how modern did early modern readers want to become? This collection of essays offers a series of case studies which demonstrate the sophisticated ways in which some readers might relate the poem to received ideas, assimilating Lucretius to theories of natural law and even natural theology, while others were at once attracted to Lucretius' subversiveness and driven to dissociate themselves from him. The volume presents a wide geographical range, from Florence and Venice to France, England, and Germany, and extends chronologically from Lucretius' contemporary audience to the European Enlightenment. It covers both major authors such as Montaigne and neglected figures such as Italian neo-Latin poets, and is the first book in the field to pay close attention to Lucretius' impact on political thought, both in philosophy - from Machiavelli, through Hobbes, to Rousseau - and in the topical spin put on the De rerum natura by translators in revolutionary England. It combines careful attention to material contexts of book production and distribution with close readings of particular interpretations and translations, to present a rich and nuanced profile of the mark made by a remarkable poem.

Series Statement

Classical Presences

Uniform Title

Classical presences.

Subject

• Lucretius Carus, Titus > De rerum natura > Congresses

Note

• "This book originated in a conference on 'Lucretius and the Early Modern', 16 May 2012, one of a series of conferences held by Oxford's Centre for Early Modern Studies (CEMS).--Acknowledgements.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFD 15-5092

ISBN

• 9780198713845
• 0198713843

OCLC

928767173

Title

Lucretius and the early modern / edited by David Norbrook, Stephen Harrison, and Philip Hardie.

Publisher

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Classical Presences

Classical presences.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Added Author

Norbrook, David, 1950- editor.

Harrison, S. J., editor.

Hardie, Philip R., editor.

Research Call Number

JFD 15-5092