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The Resource The swerve : how the world became modern, Stephen Greenblatt

The swerve : how the world became modern, Stephen Greenblatt

Creator
Summary
In this book the author transports readers to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion. In this work he has crafted both a work of history and a story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it. Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius, a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions. The copying and translation of this ancient book, the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age, fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
356 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
Contents
  • The book hunter
  • The moment of discovery
  • In search of Lucretius
  • The teeth of time
  • Birth and rebirth
  • In the lie factory
  • A pit to catch foxes
  • The way things are
  • The return
  • Swerves
  • Afterlives
Isbn
9780393064476
Instance
Label
The swerve : how the world became modern
Title
The swerve
Title remainder
how the world became modern
Statement of responsibility
Stephen Greenblatt
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
In this book the author transports readers to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion. In this work he has crafted both a work of history and a story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it. Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius, a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions. The copying and translation of this ancient book, the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age, fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson
Cataloging source
IT-FiEUI
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1943-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Greenblatt, Stephen
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • plates
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Lucretius Carus, Titus
  • Lucretius Carus, Titus
  • Renaissance
  • Philosophy, Renaissance
  • Science, Renaissance
  • Civilization, Modern
Label
The swerve : how the world became modern, Stephen Greenblatt
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [309]-335) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The book hunter -- The moment of discovery -- In search of Lucretius -- The teeth of time -- Birth and rebirth -- In the lie factory -- A pit to catch foxes -- The way things are -- The return -- Swerves -- Afterlives
Control code
FIEb17113209
Dimensions
25 cm.
Extent
356 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
Isbn
9780393064476
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
color illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)711051785
Label
The swerve : how the world became modern, Stephen Greenblatt
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [309]-335) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The book hunter -- The moment of discovery -- In search of Lucretius -- The teeth of time -- Birth and rebirth -- In the lie factory -- A pit to catch foxes -- The way things are -- The return -- Swerves -- Afterlives
Control code
FIEb17113209
Dimensions
25 cm.
Extent
356 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
Isbn
9780393064476
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
color illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)711051785

Subject

Library Locations

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      Via dei Roccettini 9, San Domenico di Fiesole, 50014, IT
      43.803074 11.283055

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