Tag: Epicurus

  • Nation & World

    On the nature of modern thought

    The story of 15th-century book hunter Poggio Bracciolini and his rediscovery of Lucretius’ “On the Nature of Things” was captured by Cogan University Professor Stephen Greenblatt in his National Book Award-winning account, “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.”

    17 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A key to modernity

    Rummaging through worm-eaten layers of parchment at a monastery in southern Germany in 1417, the scribe Poggio Bracciolini discovered a poem titled “De Rerum Natura,” or “On the Nature of Things,” by the Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus. On that day, according to Professor Stephen Greenblatt, history swerved and modernity began.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A National Book Award

    “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern,” Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt’s book describing how an ancient Roman philosophical epic helped pave the way for modern thought, has won the National Book Award for nonfiction.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Through artistry, toleration

    “On the Nature of Things,” a poem written 2,000 years ago that flouted many mainstream concepts, helped the Western world to ease into modernity, author Stephen Greenblatt recounted.

    5 minutes