The Early Textual History of Lucretius' __De rerum natura__

This is the first detailed analysis of the fate of Lucretius' De rerum natura from its composition in the 50s BC to the creation of our earliest extant manuscripts during the Carolingian Age. Close investigation of the knowledge of Lucretius' poem among writers throughout the Roman and medieval world allows fresh insight into the work's readership and reception, and a clear assessment of the indirect tradition's value for editing the poem. The first extended analysis of the 170+ subject headings (capitula) that intersperse the text reveals the close engagement of its Roman readers. A fresh inspection and assignation of marginal hands in the poem's most important manuscript (the Oblongus) provides new evidence about the work of Carolingian correctors and offers the basis for a new Lucretian stemma codicum. Further clarification of the interrelationship of Lucretius' Renaissance manuscripts gives additional evidence of the poem's reception and circulation in fifteenth-century Italy. This is the first detailed analysis of the fate of Lucretius' De rerum natura from its beginnings in the 50s BC down to the creation of our earliest extant manuscripts during the Carolingian age. A detailed investigation of the knowledge of Lucretius' poem among writers throughout the Roman, and subsequently the medieval, worlds allows fresh insight into the work's readership and reception, and an assessment of the value of the indirect tradition for editing the poem. The first extended analysis of the 170+ subject headings (capitula) that intersperse the text reveals the close engagement of Roman readers. A fresh inspection and assignation of marginal hands in the poem's most important manuscript provides new evidence about the work of Carolingian correctors and the basis for a new Lucretian stemma codicum. Further clarification of the interrelationship of Renaissance manuscripts of Lucretius gives additional evidence of the poem's reception in fifteenth-century Italy. The first full study of the survival of Lucretius' De rerum natura, the controversial six-book poem espousing Epicurean philosophy. A detailed analysis of the poem's circulation, readers and commentators in antiquity, as well as its medieval scribes and owners, sheds light on the poem's tenuous threads of transmission. Content: A Sketch Of The Extant Lucretian Manuscripts -- The Indirect Tradition Of Lucretius -- The Capitula Of De Rerum Natura -- The Correcting Hands Of O -- The Marginal Annotations Of Q1.