Lucretius

Last update: 03 Apr 2026 10:37
First version: Before 13 March 1995, expansion 29 June 2005, cleaned up 3 April 2026

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I read about half of De Rerum Natura when I was younger and my Latin was better; when I am older and my Latin is better I should like to translate the whole thing. The Leonard translation is on-line, but I don't like it very much. The translation by Anthony Esolen, not on-line, is the best I've run across. (When I am much older, I should like to translate it into literary Chinese, and Chuang Tzu into Latin, to confound the philologists of the future.)

Update, 3 April 2026: I actually like A. E. Stallings's translation better now, but the Esolen one is indeed also good. And I am no closer to this goal...

See also:
• Atomism
• Epicureanism
• Renaissance

Recommended, primary (or really 1.5-ary, i.e., translations):
• Anthony Esolen (tr.), On the Nature of Things (1995)
• A E. Stalling, The Nature of Things (2007)

Recommended, secondary (utterly inadequate):
• Ada Palmer, "Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance", Journal of the History of Ideas 73 (2012): 395--416
• Catherine Wilson, Epicureanism at the Origins of Modernity

Not entirely recommended:
• Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

Modesty forbids me to recommend:
• CRS, On the Nature of Things Humanity Was Not Meant to Know

To read, secondary:
• Alison Brown, The Return of Lucretius to Renaissance Florence
• David Butterfield, The Early Textual History of Lucretius' De rerum natura [Review in BMCR, 2014.10.21]
• Gordon Campbell, Lucretius on Creation and Evolution: A Commentary on De Rerum Nature Book Five, Lines 772--1104 [Review in BMCR, 2004.06.26]
• George Hadzsitis, Lucretius and His Influence
• Louise Adams Holland, Lucretius and the Transpadanes
• Daryn Lehoux, A. D. Morrison, and Alison Sharrock (eds.), Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science
• Andrea Moro, Lucretius and the Bat with Blue Eyes: Explaining the Universe with the Alphabet
• David Norbrook, Stephen Harrison, and Philip Hardie (eds.), Lucretius and the Early Modern
• Ada Palmer, <cite>Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance [Expansion of her JHI article. Interview with Palmer about this; Review in BMCR]
• Gerard Passannante, The Lucretian Renaissance: Philology and the Afterlife of Tradition
• George Santayana, Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe
• David N. Sedley, Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom [Review in BMCR, 1999.10.29]
• Charles Segal, Lucretius on Death and Anxiety: Poetry and Philosophy in De Rerum Natura
• W. H. Shearin, The Language of Atoms: Performativity and Politics in Lucretius' De rerum natura
• Barnaby Taylor, Lucretius and the Language of Nature
• Katharina Volk, The Poetics of Latin Didactic: Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Manilius