The large number of postillas to De rerum natura may be an important evidence and a sort of point d’honneur of the Renaissance interest in the recovery and the legacy of Lucretius. The ‘unorthodox’ themes (e.g.: soul’s immortality, denial of creation ex nihilo, Providence, afterlife, anthropological role of fear in the institution of religion and laws) mark the boundaries of a scandal whose terms will be discussed in the Essais.