Professor Cripps
2-1-Q
Chapter 9
Student: Anthony Lacaprucia
2 – Offer 2 Specific Details from the chapter. For each, ID/quote and add 3-8 sentences of your own explanation
- “Two ninth-century manuscripts of On the Nature of Things, unknown to Poggio or any of his humanist contemporaries, did manage to make it through the almost impenetrable barrier of time” (Greenblatt 127). I can’t believe manuscripts like this would be able to survive through time like this. It is very interesting and I wonder where the two that survived were found. I also wonder if people back then thought they would last as long as they did.
- “Bishop Beaufort was not the gold mine that Poggio, perennially short of money, had dreamed he would be” (Greenblatt 129). It is a little surprising that Poggio didn’t have much money. It says a little bit before this that he is a famous humanist and he also was an important secretary. I assumed he would have gained a good amount of wealth over the years.
1 – Make 1 Connection to Self, to World, or to Text – or Extend by offering a little detail about something mentioned in the text (some light research needed to Extend)
- “When he wrote again, two weeks later, impatience showed signs of giving way to anger, and, in a revealing slip of the pen, he exaggerated the number of years he had been waiting: “You have now kept the Lucretius for fourteen years and the Asconius Pedianus too…. Does it seem just to you that, if I sometimes want to read one of these authors, I cannot on account of your carelessness? … I want to read Lucretius but I am deprived of his presence; do you intend to keep him another ten years?” (Greenblatt 130). I found this to be funny because it reminded me of an angry text message. It’s interesting how people would communicate through letters like this. It was like Poggio was getting “ghosted” by Niccoli.
Q – Give us a Good Question to chew on – 1-3 sentences
- Would anyone be interested in reading On The Nature of Things directly? I think it would be an interesting read.
