RICERCA ITALIANA     

Lucretius: critical edition and italian translation of book V, partial commentary on book VI and humanistic Fortleben

Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"

Abstract

The program is included in a wider project, which aims:
1.to provide a new critical edition of Lucretius' text and Italian translation of book V (an already advanced work, since the first 4 books of D e r e r u m n a t u r a have been already published by E. Flores);
2. to throw new light on the marginal handwritings of Oblongus and Quadratus, full of interest and of mistery;
3. to provide a commentary of the most obscure and neglected passages of the poem (book VI is one of them, because of its subject);
4. to look for evidences of Lucretius' Fortleben, in particular for Scipione Capece, in the Humanism and Renaissance, still unexplored and difficult to be found because of the contemporary protestant Reformation, what must have inspired feelings far from indifference towards the materialistic epicurean poet.

Principal Investigator

Enrico FLORES Università degli Studi di NAPOLI "Federico II"

Research Objectives

1. Critical edition of Lucretius, de r.n., book V, with a wide critical apparatus and rythmical translation in Italian
2. Inquiry about handwritings of medieval codices of Lucretius, Oblongus and Quadratus
3. Commentary on the following passage of Lucretius, de r.n., book VI: vv. 535-737 (concerning the explanation of earth movements like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions)
4. Deeper knowledge of some humanists' acquaintance (like Scipione Capece, Naples XVI) with Lucretius

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

1. The last edition of Lucretius was edited by Buechner in 1966, but the critical apparatus was missing of many information and full of mistakes. A new critical apparatus must provide more information about the textual trasmission of Lucretius, and the text must be accompanied by a much more precise (philologically speaking) translation in Italian.
2. The works produced about Oblongus' and Quadratus' handwritings (Lachmann, Duvau, Chatelain) need to be updated. The autoptical exame of the manuscript reveals a much more complicated situation of the notes (in the margin and between the lines) that needs to be enlighted.
3. One of the most interesting and complicated questions we have to answer while studying Lucretius book VI deals with the identification of the sources used by the poet to talk about earth's phaenomena; in this kind of research Teophrastus' metheorological works and the doxographic tradition seem to be a very important chapter. Philosophical study, besides, cannot be separated from the one concerned with metric and language.
4.A systematic research can begin to throw light at least on Lucretius in the Southern Humanism in Italy and on his contribution to the tradition and diffusion of his poem. For example Scipione Capece's knowledge of Lucretius could be better enlighted through contemporary evidences - Lambin mentions Scipio Neapolitanus in his edition of Lucretius - or through a deeper examination of his poem De principiis rerum.