• 20 • VERY RARE 1682 FIRST EDITION OF THOMAS CREECH’S PIONEERING TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH OF LUCRETIUS’ ON THE NATURE OF THINGS, THE WORK THAT INSPIRED JEFFERSON TO PROCLAIM, IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, AMERICANS’ VITAL RIGHT TO “THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS” 20(CREECH, Thomas) LUCRETIUS. Titus Lucretius Carus. The Epicurean Philosopher, His Six Books De Natura Rerum Done into English VERSE, with NOTES. Oxford, 1682. Small octavo (4-1/2 by 6-3/4 inches), contemporary mottled brown calf rebacked in calf-gilt, raised bands, red morocco spine label; pp.(20), 222, (2), 46, (2). $17,500. Exceedingly rare first edition in English of the complete text of Roman poet Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things(preceded only by Evelyn’s 1652 translation of the first of the six books), a seminal work in Western history offering “key principles of a modern understanding of the world.” The work was a “crucial guide” to Thomas Jefferson, who proclaimed himself “an Epicurean” like Lucretius, owned an edition of Creech’s translation, and gave the Declaration of Independence “a distinctly Lucretian turn” by naming “the pursuit of happiness” to be a pivotal American right. Noted scholar Stephen Greenblatt “posits Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things as a defining text for Renaissance Humanism, influencing Botticelli, da Vinci, Galileo, Machiavelli, Montaigne and Shakespeare» (Owen, Lucretius and the Radical Imagination). By the mid-1600s translation into English by Puritan Lucy Hutchinson was known but it remained unpublished until the 20th century. It was only in 1682 that the first edition in English was published “by the young Oxford-educated scholar Thomas Creech. His Lucretius was greeted as an astonishing achievement” (Swerve, 257). The work ultimately proved to be of vital importance to Americans when Thomas Jefferson found Lucretius to be “a crucial guide… He owned at least five Latin editions of On the Nature of Things. When a correspondent asked Jefferson his philosophy of life, America’s third president and Founding Father simply answered: “I am an Epicurean” (Swerve, 262-63). Included with Jefferson’s numerous Latin, Italian and French editions was a 1714 edition of Creech’s translation: “entered by Jefferson in his undated manuscript catalogue” (Sowerby 4460). With Creech’s preface, “dropped in all subsequent editions” due to implication of godlessness (Hopkins, “Thomas Creech’s Preface,” Studies in Philology, 702). Including “Life of Lucretius”; separately paginated “Notes.” “Epistle Dedicatory” signed and dated in print: “June 20, 82, Sir Your Obliged Humble Servant Thomas Creech.” With final errata leaf. ESTC R8877. Wing L3447. Gordon 331. Text remarkably fresh, with just a hint of marginal dampstaining, mostly in notes; original endpapers restored and preserved. Contemporary mottled brown calf with expert restoration to extremities, sympathetically rebacked.
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