《物性论》与意大利文艺复兴

De Rerum Natura and the Italian Renaissance

人文主义者波焦在1417年重新发现古罗马史诗《物性论》是意大利文艺复兴时期的重大事件。此前的一个世纪,彼特拉克和薄伽丘对卢克莱修可能只有二手的了解,15世纪的意大利作家却有机会研读这部作品,并与其中的伊壁鸠鲁思想展开对话。人文主义诗人庞塔诺、马鲁卢斯和波利齐亚诺等人重新确立了卢克莱修在欧洲诗歌中的经典地位。由于1517年佛罗伦萨禁令的影响,意大利在16世纪不再是研究卢克莱修的中心,但15世纪人文主义者开创的尊崇《物性论》的传统依然在阿拉曼尼和塔索父子等人的作品中延续。

The rediscovery of the Roman epic De Rerum Natura by the humanist Poggio in 1417 was a major event of the Italian Renaissance.Whereas in the previous century,Petrarch and Boccaccio may have had only second-hand knowledge of Lucretius,Italian writers of the fifteenth century had the opportunity to study the work and engage in dialogue with the Epicurean ideas therein.Humanist poets such as Pontano,Marullus,and Poliziano re-established Lucretius’s prestige in European poetry.Italy ceased to be a center for the study of Lucretius in the sixteenth century due to the Florentine ban of 1517,but the tradition of veneration for De Rerum Natura begun by the 15th-century humanists continued in the works of Alamanni,Bernardo Tasso,and Torquato Tasso,among others.