Why did Renaissance thinkers such as Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and Pierre Gassendi take interest in De rerum natura?

Renaissance thinkers such as Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno, and Pierre Gassendi took a keen interest in Lucretius’s poem De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) primarily because of the insights into the natural world it provided.12

The poem served as a crucial classical text that directed attention toward the ancient school of atomism. By reviving these ancient ideas, these thinkers were able to explore physical theories that offered alternatives to the dominant Scholastic and Aristotelian views of the time.123

Specifically, Pierre Gassendi became a prominent modern Epicurean who sought to reconcile this mechanistic atomism with Christian belief, arguing that the atomic world could be understood through experience and induction rather than relying on traditional teleological explanations. For these figures, the recovery of such classical works was instrumental in challenging medieval learning and fostering the intellectual climate of the Scientific Revolution.3412