History
Machiavelli Copied Entire Lucretius Poem by Hand Despite Print Copies Existing
Dwarkesh Patel Podcast
Ada Palmer – Machiavelli is the most misunderstood thinker of all time
What was said
"One of my favorite manuscripts ever that I've worked with is a copy of Lucretius that in Machiavelli's hand, he copied out the entire poem. This is in the Vatican Library. But what's really neat is he copied the text from a printed copy, but as he copied it, integrated into it corrections and improvements of errors in that one taken from a manuscript copy so that what he produced was better than either the printed version or the manuscript version."
Palmer describes a Vatican Library manuscript where Machiavelli hand-copied Lucretius's entire poem despite printed editions existing, creating a hybrid text superior to both print and manuscript sources. This reveals the parallel coexistence of manuscript and print technologies in the early 16th century and Machiavelli's scholarly method of synthesizing multiple textual traditions.
Verification status
Attributed speaker claim
Egleze verified who said this and where. The underlying claim has not been independently established by Egleze.
Source and context
Egleze verified who said this and where. The underlying claim has not been independently established by Egleze.
- Programme
- Dwarkesh Patel Podcast
- Episode
- Ada Palmer – Machiavelli is the most misunderstood thinker of all time
- Clip time
- 1:42:21
- Original source
- Watch the source segment →
From this episode
Dwarkesh Patel Podcast