"On the Nature of Things" redirects here. For the documentary television series, see The Nature of Things. For other works, see De natura rerum.
De rerum natura
by Lucretius
Opening of Pope Sixtus IV's 1483 manuscript of De rerum natura, scribed by Girolamo di Matteo de Tauris
Written
First-century BC
Country
Roman Republic
Language
Latin
Subject(s)
Epicureanism, ethics, physics, natural philosophy
Genre(s)
Didactic
Meter
Dactylic hexameter
Publication date
1473 c.
Published in English
1682
Media type
manuscript
Lines
7,400
Full text
On the Nature of Things at Wikisource
De rerum natura (Latin:[deːˈreːrʊnnaːˈtuːraː]; 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.[1] 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 fortuna ("chance"),[2] and not the divine intervention of the traditional Roman deities.
^Greenblatt (2011).
^In particular, De rerum natura 5.107 (fortuna gubernans, "guiding chance" or "fortune at the helm"). See: Gale (1996) [1994], pp. 213, 223–24.
Dererumnatura (Latin: [deː ˈreːrʊn naːˈtuːraː]; On the Nature of Things) is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius...
Denaturarerum may refer to: Dererumnatura, a didactic poem by Lucretius Denaturarerum (Bede), a treatise by Bede Denaturarerum, a treatise by Isidore...
poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem Dererumnatura, a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which...
Dererumnatura (usually translated as On the Nature of Things) is a philosophical epic poem written by Lucretius in Latin around 55 BCE. The poem was...
monastic libraries. His most celebrated finds are Dererumnatura, the only surviving work by Lucretius, De architectura by Vitruvius, lost orations by Cicero...
attestations of his ideas from his later disciples. The epic poem Dererumnatura (Latin for "On the Nature of Things") by Lucretius presents the core...
Oxford Latin Dictionary, the phrase is attributed to Lucretius in his Dererumnatura where he used the term as an epithet to describe an earth goddess:...
and the first person to translate the complete text of Lucretius's Dererumnatura (On the Nature of Things) into English verse, during the years of the...
summer months Roman Epicurean poet Lucretius opened his didactic poem Dererumnatura by addressing Venus as a veritable mother of nature. Lucretius used...
Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 161. DeRerumNatura III Revue archéologique, 1904 Sansonese, J. Nigro. The Body of Myth...
Callimachus's hymns. In Latin famous works include Lucretius's philosophical Dererumnatura, Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics, book 10 of Columella's manual on agriculture...
version of the expression was coined by Lucretius, who stated in his Dererumnatura that "nothing can be created out of nothing". Alternatives to creatio...
obsessive book hunter, saved the last copy of the Roman poet Lucretius's Dererumnatura (On the Nature of Things) from near-terminal neglect in a German monastery...
Alfonso III Carafa, Duke of Nocera. In 1565 appeared his great work DeRerumNatura Iuxta Propria Principia (On the Nature of Things according to their...
use it. What happens to exist is the cause of its use. — Lucretius, Dererumnatura [On the Nature of Things] 4, 833 The chief instance, and the largest...
rediscovered in the 15th century by Poggio Bracciolini among works such as DeRerumnatura. Many artists attempted to design figures which would satisfy Vitruvius'...
Atheist" of Melos. In ancient Rome, an early known example is Lucretius' Dererumnatura from the 1st century BCE. Every exclusive religion on Earth (as well...
was Lucretius' Epicurean epic Dererumnatura. G. B. Conte notes, citing the programmatic statement "Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas" in Georgics...
esse omnino Diagoras et Theodorus Cyrenaicus ... Cicero, Marcus Tullius: Denatura deorum. Comments and English text by Richard D. McKirahan. Thomas Library...
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On the Nature of Things at Wikisource