The Presence of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura in Girolamo Vida's Christiad

ABSTRACT:Christian readers engaged for centuries with Lucretius' De Rerum Natura and often contrasted or harmonized its Epicurean ideas. By analyzing a series of loci similes, I suggest that the imitation of Lucretius in a Neo-Latin epic written in sixteenth century Italy, Girolamo Vida's Christiad, represents a polemical response to that ancient author. Learned readers experienced cognitive dissonance when they could recognize the Lucretian intertexts. However, a systematic and usually contrastive adaptation showed them how to refute the false doctrine advocated by that Epicurean poem in what amounts to an extremely crafted case of Neo-Latin intertextuality, a still understudied area.