Italian Commentaries on Lucretius

In the fifteenth century, no formal commentary to Lucretius was produced by Italian scholars. However, many manuscripts and editions feature exegetical notes by (e.g.) Pomponius Laetus and his friends, Bartolomeo Fonzio, Janus Parrhasius, and Marullus. In the sixteenth century, Petrus Victorius’ notes lie in the same tradition. In 1511, Iohannes Baptista Pius published the first commentary to Lucretius. In the seventeenth century, Giovanni Nardi’s Paraphrastica Explanatio (1647) is the only work worth citing. In the nineteenth century, Carlo Giussani published the most important Italian commentary (1896–98); in the twentieth century, the influence of the great English, German, and French commentaries was very strong: nevertheless, some original and meaningful works were published either for schools and universities or for general readers.