The first printed Lucretius puts De rerum natura into type at Brescia
In 1473 a Brescia press issued the first printed De rerum natura, the main Latin carrier of Garden physics after Poggio’s 1417 rediscovery. In the causal graph this event sets in motion Digital Learning Access, a driver that weakens Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries) — an improving welfare path.
Read the full account
In 1473 a Brescia press issued the first printed De rerum natura, the main Latin carrier of Garden physics after Poggio’s 1417 rediscovery. The colophon is a humanist shop’s, not a Garden autograph. Print made atomism copyable in the Latin West.
Context
Poggio found a manuscript; print multiplied it. Church hostility did not prevent the book’s survival once type existed.
Epicurus is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.
Why it matters
A 1473 Latin poem in type is a knowledge-access ignition, not a laboratory.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Epicurus
PersonDirect responsibility
responsibility level 0.28 · verified
Garden founder as named in later editions and finds. Printers, excavators, and editors publish the instrument.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactThe first printed Lucretius puts De rerum natura into type at Brescia
- sets in motionDriverDigital Learning Access
- weakensIndicators (3)Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)
impact weight 0.5 · Effect from 1 January 1473 · verified
A 1473 Latin poem in type is a knowledge-access ignition, not a laboratory.
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.2 (weight 0.5 × strength 0.4)
Observed
70% of 10-year-olds · 70 above the normal line (2022)
Worse than normalTwo readings: 57% of 10-year-olds (2019) and 70% of 10-year-olds (2022).
20192022 Above normal = worse
Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.17 (weight 0.5 × strength 0.35)
Observed
472 PISA score points · 28 below the normal line (2022)
Worse than normal7 readings, 2003–2022: fell from 499 PISA score points to 472 PISA score points.
Above normal = better
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.15 (weight 0.5 × strength 0.3)
Observed
11% of primary-school-age children · 11 above the normal line (2023)
Worse than normalAbove normal = worse
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (public-domain English)Project Gutenberg · High credibility · verified
- 2.Britannica — EpicurusEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorEpicurus
- contributed toFactThe first printed Lucretius puts De rerum natura into type at Brescia
- sets in motionDriverDigital Learning Access
- weakensIndicatorLearning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). The first printed Lucretius puts De rerum natura into type at Brescia. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/ep-lucretius-print-1473
https://factrail.ai/facts/ep-lucretius-print-1473
Accessed 15 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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