Book Review: The Swerve
Book Review: The Swerve
After the destruction of the Roman Empire, Europe lost its entire intellectual and cultural luster it once had. The illustrious works of literature sitting in public libraries all across Rome rotted away and burned to ashes. A millennium later book hunter Poggio Bracciolini enters a secluded monastic library hidden in the Alps and brings to life one of the greatest philosophical poems written to this day, Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Stephen Greenblatt examines Poggio Bracciolini’s life and the colossal impact of Lucretius’s poem in his book The Swerve.
Greenblatt tells the story of De Rerum Natura through the story of humanist Poggio Bracciolini. Born in Terranuova, Italy and raised in Florence, Poggio was trained in Latin at a very early age. He stood out for his amazing handwriting and as a copyist. Looking for work, Poggio goes off to the Roman Curia to work as a scriptor (copier of manuscripts). Poggio moves up the ranks eventually becoming the Pope’s personal secretary, serving a total of seven popes. While at the Roman Curia, Poggio is exposed to the greed, prostitution, and over all corruption that takes place and is troubled by the lack of intellectual contemporaries. So when the Council of Constance dethrones Pope John XXII in 1413, stripping Poggio of his job, Poggio decides to take a gamble and go book hunting. Traveling through Germany and Switzerland, he finds a rare copy of Lucretius poem and makes a copy of it. Though Poggio found many valuable ancient manuscripts he is most famous for reviving De Rerum Natura. After an unsuccessful attempt searching monastic libraries in England he returns back home to Florence. He decides to settle down, and marries Salveggia Boundelmonti, daughter of a wealthy Florentine family. He served as Chancellor of Florence and devoted time writing three books and died in 1459.
Stephen Greenblatt argues that the revival and circulation of Lucretius’s poem caused the
After the destruction of the Roman Empire, Europe lost its entire intellectual and cultural luster it once had. The illustrious works of literature sitting in public libraries all across Rome rotted away and burned to ashes. A millennium later book hunter Poggio Bracciolini enters a secluded monastic library hidden in the Alps and brings to life one of the greatest philosophical poems written to this day, Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Stephen Greenblatt examines Poggio Bracciolini’s life and the colossal impact of Lucretius’s poem in his book The Swerve.
Greenblatt tells the story of De Rerum Natura through the story of humanist Poggio Bracciolini. Born in Terranuova, Italy and raised in Florence, Poggio was trained in Latin at a very early age. He stood out for his amazing handwriting and as a copyist. Looking for work, Poggio goes off to the Roman Curia to work as a scriptor (copier of manuscripts). Poggio moves up the ranks eventually becoming the Pope’s personal secretary, serving a total of seven popes. While at the Roman Curia, Poggio is exposed to the greed, prostitution, and over all corruption that takes place and is troubled by the lack of intellectual contemporaries. So when the Council of Constance dethrones Pope John XXII in 1413, stripping Poggio of his job, Poggio decides to take a gamble and go book hunting. Traveling through Germany and Switzerland, he finds a rare copy of Lucretius poem and makes a copy of it. Though Poggio found many valuable ancient manuscripts he is most famous for reviving De Rerum Natura. After an unsuccessful attempt searching monastic libraries in England he returns back home to Florence. He decides to settle down, and marries Salveggia Boundelmonti, daughter of a wealthy Florentine family. He served as Chancellor of Florence and devoted time writing three books and died in 1459.
Stephen Greenblatt argues that the revival and circulation of Lucretius’s poem caused the