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GIANCOTTI, F., L'ottimismo relativo nel 'De Rerum Natura' di Lucrezio. Oescher, Torino,1968. XXXII,222p. Sewn. Card board cover. Series: Crestomazi Latina, n. 7. Edges cover slightly edge worn. Pages a little bit yellowed due to paper quality. (Rare). 'This is a text (with commentary) of the six prefaces and six somewhat arbitrarily determined finales to the books of Lucretius; the intervening matter is summarized in Italian. (...) A judicious selection of other scholar's views is offered, and a rational choice between alternatives. There are a number of original suggestions which show sensibility and imagination without bringing any strikingly new interpretations. The introduction adds a voice to the protests (...) against the widespread view that there is a pessimistic strain in De rerum natura. The author argues that while Lucretius sees the creative and destructive forces in the physical universe as evenly balanced and here can be neither optimist nor pessimist, in the ethical sphere he can be called a relative optimist because, although admitting that most men are miserable, he beleives that they have it in their power to be happy by becoming Epicurean philosophers.' (P.H. SANDBACH in The Classical Review (New Series), 1961, pp.296-297). € 35.00 (Antiquarian)