The Swerve

How one rediscovered manuscript sparked the Renaissance – reshaping European thought and changing the world.
Over six hundred years ago, a short, genial man took a very old manuscript off a library shelf. It was On the Nature of Things: the sole surviving copy of Lucretius’ ancient Roman philosophical epic. With excitement, he ordered it copied – and changed the course of history.

The poem contained the most radical and dangerous Epicurean ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods; that religious fear was damaging to human life; and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion. Such ideas fueled the Renaissance, inspiring Botticelli and shaping the thoughts of Montaigne, Darwin, Einstein and more.

Written by the world’s most celebrated Renaissance scholar, The Swerve is a thrilling story of discovery that reveals how one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of obscurity, made possible the world as we know it. 

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

'Superb' Observer

'Dazzling' Guardian

‘Superbly readable… An exciting story, and Greenblatt tells it with his customary clarity and verve’ Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Daily Telegraph