Lucretius and Early Modern Satire. An Inquiry into Federigo Nomi’s Liber Satyrarum Sexdecim (1703)

This paper investigates the previously unexplored reception of Lucretius’ De rerum natura in early modern satire, focusing on a close reading of Federigo Nomi’s Liber Satyrarum sexdecim (Leiden, 1703). By examining Nomi’s private correspondence with Antonio Magliabechi, the contribution seeks to connect his engagement with Lucretius to the vicissitudes of Alessandro Marchetti’s Italian translation of the poem. It is argued that Lucretius exerts a significant influence on the shaping of Nomi’s persona satirica as a philosophical stance to critique contemporary society. The second part of the paper argues that Nomi also employs Lucretius as an intellectual source, particularly engaging with Lucretius’ book 5 on the origins and development of mankind. In doing so, Nomi inherits Lucretius’ ambivalent and ambiguous understanding of human progress. The paper concludes that Nomi’s reception of Lucretius involves a process of delimitation , in which the contexts and modes of employing De rerum natura are carefully set. Note from the Editor: Alessandro Bonvini is the recipient of the 2025 ERL Prize.