Reflections

Lucretius and his surprisingly modern poem On The Nature of Things have a great champion in Stephen Greenblatt, author of this mostly fascinating book about how the poem was rescued from almost certain oblivion and the ways in which its sudden availability after 1000 years influenced Renaissance era artists and scholars. My favorite section was about the ancient city of Alexandria and its famous library--I didn't know the extent to which the library itself was involved in promoting and supporting scholarship. Greenblatt makes what may be a too strong case for the importance of the poem, but the book is captivating nonetheless, especially the sections on the ancient world when polytheists, Christians and Jews were living together in ever decreasing harmony.