December 1500

Aldus’s preoccupation with the integrity and correctness of the original text lies behind the publication of his edition of the Epicurean poem De rerum natura by Lucretius, printed without commentary and restored to its beautiful original form by the careful editing of Girolamo Avanzi of Verona (d. after 1534), professor of philosophy and humanities at Padua.

Lucretius is the first of the Latin classics to be printed by Aldus, a strange choice if one considers the controversial nature of the text often in contrast with Christian beliefs–as the publisher himself points out in his dedicatory letter–but a natural choice given the philosophical nature of the text, in line with Aldus’s interests in scientific and philosophical texts from the Antiquity. Aldus’s admission that the text has also been chosen in view of the classical elegance of the verse introduces a new element of interest in the text.

Unsurprisingly the edition is dedicated once again to his former pupil and financier Alberto Pio, Prince of Carpi, as was customary for Manutius at almost every new turn of his printing production. Despite–or indeed because of–all these novelties the book, a solid in-quarto with woodcut initials of interlaced ribbon decoration, is rather conservative in its appearance.

Keynes.H.3.9, fol. a1 recto