In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius' ancient poem On the Nature of Things, had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years. It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the ...
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In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius' ancient poem On the Nature of Things, had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years. It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem's vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein, and-in the hands of Thomas Jefferson-leave its trace on the Declaration of Independence. From the gardens of the ancient philosophers to the dark chambers of monastic scriptoria during the Middle Ages to the cynical, competitive court of a corrupt and dangerous pope, Greenblatt brings Poggio's search and discovery to life in a way that deepens our understanding of the world we live in now. "An intellectually invigorating, nonfiction version of a Dan Brown-like mystery-in-the-archives thriller." -Boston Globe
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Add this copy of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern to cart. $0.99, fair condition, Sold by Zoom Books Company rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lynden, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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I'm not finished, so this review is based on partial experience.
This is a fascinating topic and well worth studying. I have a complaint, which is common to books of history aimed at nontechnical readers. I am disturbed and annoyed by reading an author's description of internal mental states of subjects long dead and not available for interview. Author, you can't know what a person in your narrative was thinking at any time. Don't tell me about it. You debase the information and analysis of that that you are presenting.
At the same time, what is presented is of great importance in understanding the shift in modes of thought engendered by Poggio's discovery of the Lucretius manuscript. It is well worth putting up with annoyance to get to the gold in them there hills.
Ileana I
Jul 29, 2012
In the pursuit of happiness
Beautifully crafted scholarly research about the power of ideas that reads like a novel. His chapter on the scriptorium reminded me of Eco's "The Name of the Rose". Greenblatt challenges his readers to think about the meanings of "the pursuit of happiness" in our own time.
Hugh T. J
Jul 19, 2012
Excellent take on pre Enlightenment thinking
I found this book to be highly informative about the intellectual transition that formed the basis of the Renaissance. This has to be a must read for anyone who wants to get a nuanced understanding of this turbulent period and even has relevance in today's highly charged political discourses.
Albert A
Jul 19, 2012
Overly Ambitious
A colorful, albeit biased, glimpse into 14th and 15th Century Italy. Mr.Greenblatt's central thesis is that the Renaissance was inspired by the rediscovery of the Lucretius poem, " On the Nature of Things." In my view, Mr. Greenblatt is never able to prove anything like causality.
The book does provide a very personal view of many of the central,and minor, characters of the Renaissance.
