1754, On the Nature of Things Engraved Plates

2 Volumes, On the Nature of Things ATOMISM MIND SOUL Engraved Plates

LUCREZIO, Caro Tito

 Books are translated from the Latin into Italian by Alessandro Marchetti.

 Illustrated with frontispieces and engraved titles in both vols, along with 6 plates and 12 head and tail vignettes. Bound in a Contemporary cat’s paw polished leather binding, gilt trim to boards, five raised bands to spine, with gilt floral paneling. 

De rerum natural; On the Nature of Things) is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC) with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience.

The poem, written in some 7,400 dactylic hexameters, is divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean physics through poetic language and metaphors. Namely, Lucretius explores the principles of atomism; the nature of the mind and soul; explanations of sensation and thought; the development of the world and its phenomena; and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial phenomena.

The universe described in the poem operates according to these physical principles, guided by fortune ("chance"), and not the divine intervention of the traditional Roman deities.

Titus Lucretius Carus c. 15 October 99 BC – c. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher.

His only known work is the philosophical poem De rerum natura, a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which is usually translated into English as On the Nature of Things.

Lucretius has been credited with originating the concept of the three-age system which was formalized in 1836 by C. J. Thomsen.

Very little is known about Lucretius's life; the only certain fact is that he was either a friend or client of Gaius Memmius, to whom the poem was addressed and dedicated.

De rerum natural was a considerable influence on the Augustan poets, particularly Virgil (in his Aeneid and Georgics, and to a lesser extent on the Eclogues) and Horace. The work virtually disappeared during the Middle Ages, but was rediscovered in 1417 in a monastery in Germany by Poggio Bracciolini and it played an important role both in the development of atomism (Lucretius was an important influence on Pierre Gassendi) and the efforts of various figures of the Enlightenment era to construct a new Christian humanism. Lucretius's scientific poem "On the Nature of Things" (c. 60 BC) has a remarkable description of Brownian motion of dust particles in verses 113–140 from Book II. He uses this as a proof of the existence of atoms.

Di Tito Lucrezio Caro della Natura delle cose. Libri sei tradotti dal latino in italiano da Alessandro Marchetti. Dati nuovamente in luce da Francesco Gerbault interpreted di S.M. Cma per le lingue Italian e Spagnola De rerum nature; On the Nature of Things

Author: LUCREZIO, Caro Tito

Publisher: Amsterdam: a Spese Dell Editore

Edition: 1754 2 Vol, Italian 

Attributes: Plates highly detailed and engraved, contemporary bindings, classic Italian works