Lucretius in (moderate) Baroque: Meanings and Functions of the Lucretian «Auctoritas» in Giovanni Delfino’s Philosophical and Scientific Dialogues in Prose

Giovanni Delfino (or Dolfin) was a prominent figure in Venetian culture, belonging to the wave of the so-called moderate-Baroque. He received the finest cultural training in Padua and his political career took off in 1656, when the Patriarch of Aquileia picked him as coadjutor and successor; in due course, Delfino became cardinal. True to his aristocratic upbringing, Delfino reserved his multifarious and exceptionally learned output for a select circle of distinguished friends and correspondents, and always shrank from the idea of publishing his writings in print. The two manuscripts containing his philosophical and scientific Dialogues in prose reveal an intellectual personality of the highest interest: in the ten Dialogues Delfino discusses Gassendi’s and Galileo’s theories, backed up by an extensive selection of ancient texts, in which Lucretius (with Manilius) takes a leading place, both as a didactic model in poetry, and as a repository of scientific knowledge. Delfino is especially interesting as a representative of a kind of Italian reader of Lucretius not often taken into consideration: up to date with the latest advances in science and philosophy, but characterized by the utmost caution in divulging their otherwise progressive theories to a wider audience.