Search results for " De rerum natura."
showing 3 items of 3 documents
A View from the Garden: Contemplative Isolation and Constructive Sociability in Lucretius and in the Epicurean Tradition
2021
It is often assumed that Epicurean philosophy and its foremost Roman prophet, T. Lucretius Carus, adopted a deeply hostile attitude towards both politics and religion. Individualistic (or even solipsistic) interpretations of Epicureanism – as well as of the Epicurean catechism of De Rerum Natura – have long co-existed with, and provided support to, the claim that the Epicureans attached little value to religious experiences. In the present paper, I shall argue that, in this and many other respects, the modern reception of Epicureanism – with its brave aspirations after the liberation of science from social and religious restraints – has had undue influence on our understanding of De Rerum N…
Lucrezio e Carlo Magno. A proposito dell’epistola di Dungal sulle eclissi (MGH Epistolae IV Karolini aevi II, pp. 570-578)
2021
It is generally assumed that Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura disappeared with the end of antiquity and did not reappear until Poggio Bracciolini’s rediscovery (1417). Yet, the oldest and most valuable manuscripts of DRN were copied in the Carolingian age and reflect a high degree of attention to Lucretius’ text and its content. In the present paper, I argue that by studying more carefully the origin and diffusion of Lucretian manuscripts in Carolingian Europe, it is possible to detect an almost unrecognized connection between textual tradition, grammatical erudition, and literary imitatio. In the first section, I offer an overview of the reception of DRN in such representative ninth-century writ…