Loeb Classical Library
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The Loeb Classical Library is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literatur
Greek (green) and Latin (red) volumes of the Loeb Classical Library in Hatchard's bookshop London
Volume 170N of the Greek collection, revised edition
Volume 6 of the Latin collection, second edition 1988
De rerum natura
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De rerum natura is a first-century BCE didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in some 7,400 d
Opening of Pope Sixtus IV's 1483 manuscript of De rerum natura, scribed by Girolamo di Matteo de Tauris
First lines: Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas. / alma Venus, caeli subter labentia signa / Quae mare navigerum, quae terras frugiferentis... (Translation: Mother of Aeneas’ tribe, delight of men and gods, nurturing Venus, who under the gliding signs of heaven [brings] fruitfulness to the ship-carrying sea and the lands..). 9th century copy, Leiden University Library.
Lucretius opens his poem by addressing Venus (center), urging her to pacify her lover, Mars (right). Given Lucretius's relatively secular philosophy and his eschewing of superstition, his invocation of Venus has caused much debate among scholars.
Lucretius pointing to the casus, the downward movement of the atoms. From the frontispiece to Of the Nature of Things, 1682.