The Early Textual History of Lucretius' De rerum natura

Surveys the first millennium in the circulation of Lucretius' De rerum natura, analysing its ancient readers, annotators, scribes and owners.

David Butterfield (Author)

9781107037458, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 October 2013

368 pages, 12 b/w illus. 8 colour illus. 10 tables
22.3 x 14.3 x 2.4 cm, 0.59 kg

'The style and the structure of the volume are very clear and the book can be considered a valuable tool …' Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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.

Preface
Introduction
1. A sketch of the extant Lucretian manuscripts
2. The indirect tradition of Lucretius
3. The capitula of DRN
4. The correcting hands of O
5. The marginal annotations of Q1
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Capitula Lucretiana
Appendix 2. Apparatus fontium Lucreti (ante a.d. millesimum)
Appendix 3. The corrections and annotations of O
Appendix 4. The foliation of the Lucretian archetype
Appendix 5. The fate of OQS in the early modern period.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Poetry by individual poets [DCF], Palaeography [history of writing CFL]