Titi Lucretii Cari. De Rerum Natura Libri Sex: Difference between revisions
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==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library== | ==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library== | ||
Listed in the [[Jefferson Inventory]] of [[Wythe's Library]] as "Lucretius. 12mo. Foul." and given by [[Thomas Jefferson]] to his grandson [[Thomas Jefferson Randolph]]. The Brown Bibliography<ref>Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, 2009, rev. 2023) Microsoft Word document, (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).</ref> lists the 1749 edition of ''De Rerum Natura Libri Sex'' published by Robert and Andrew Foulis. [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe George Wythe's Library]<ref>''LibraryThing'', s.v. "[http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe Member: George Wythe]," accessed on July 10, 2025.</ref> on LibraryThing states "Precise edition unknown. Probably one of the two octavo editions of Lucretius published by Foulis, in 1749 and 1759. No Foulis duodecimo edition is documented." The Wolf Law Library has yet to find a Foulis edition of this work by Lucretius. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 11:53, 10 July 2025
by Titus Lucretius Carus
| De Rerum Natura Libri Sex | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | Titus Lucretius Carus | |
| Published | Cantabrigiæ: Ex officina Joann. Hayes, Impensis W. Morden | |
| Date | 1675 or 1686 | |
Titus Lucretius Carus (c.99 – c.55 BCE), known simply as Lucretius, was a Roman poet who believed in Epicurean philosophy:[1] a “strictly mechanistic account of all phenoma” that atoms make up everything in the world, from physical objects to the mind to the soul.[2] Little is known about Lucretius, although various contemporary authors have written about his life.[3]
De Rerum Natura, or On the Nature of Things, the only known work of Lucretius, is a poem in six books. "The purpose of the poem is to free men from a sense of guilt and the fear of death by demonstrating that fear of the intervention of gods in this world and of punishment of the soul after death are groundless: the world and everything in it are material and governed by the mechanical laws of nature, and the soul is mortal and perishes with the body."[4] Lucretius wrote with a clear and organizational purpose; even "[the] division of the text corresponds to the Epicurean stress on the intelligibility of phenomena: everything has a systematic explanation, the world can be analysed and understood."[5] Each book has a prologue and a conclusion. The prologue in Book 1 "opens with a famous invocation of Venus, goddess of creative life, to grant to the poet inspiration and to Rome peace."[6]
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Lucretius. 12mo. Foul." and given by Thomas Jefferson to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The Brown Bibliography[7] lists the 1749 edition of De Rerum Natura Libri Sex published by Robert and Andrew Foulis. George Wythe's Library[8] on LibraryThing states "Precise edition unknown. Probably one of the two octavo editions of Lucretius published by Foulis, in 1749 and 1759. No Foulis duodecimo edition is documented." The Wolf Law Library has yet to find a Foulis edition of this work by Lucretius.
See also
- De Rerum Natura Libri Sex ad Optimorum Exemplarium Fidem Recensiti
- Jefferson Inventory
- Of the Nature of Things
- Titi Lucretii Cari De Rerum Natura Libri Sex: ex Editione Thomae Creech
- Wythe's Library
References
- ↑ "Lucrē'tius" in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- ↑ "Epicū'rus" in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- ↑ "Lucrē'tius" in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ "Lucrētius" in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, ed. by John Roberts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- ↑ "Lucrē'tius” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature.
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, 2009, rev. 2023) Microsoft Word document, (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).
- ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on July 10, 2025.