Plinys natural history is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to zoology, covering botany, medicine, geography, magic, metallurgy and religion along the. Museums oldest natural history book now accessible online. The natural history book vii with book viii 4 pliny the elders natural history is a vast encyclopaedia, surveying natural phenomena from cosmology to biology, medicine to magic. His natural history contained over a million words in 37 volumes pliny attempted to document all known facts about the natural world. On india xxvi 96 but before we go on to a detailed account of these countries, it is suitable to indicate the facts reported by onesicritus after sailing with the fleet of alexander round from india to the interior of farsistan, and quite recently related in detail by juba, and. Plinys natural hist in 30 7 bk the elder pliny, philemon 15521637. The natural history there is no book so bad that some good cannot be got out of it, pliny the elder used to say, and he read everything that he could obtain. The worlds first natural history book still fascinates 2000 years on. Mingling acute observation with often wild speculation, it offers a fascinating view of the world as it was understood in the first century ad, whether describing the danger of diving for sponges, the first waterclock, or the use of asses milk to remove wrinkles. The only translation of plinys natural history which has hitherto appeared in the. Pliny the elder, who died during the eruption of vesuvius in 79 a.
Gaius plinius secundus ad 232479, called pliny the elder. Plinys historia naturalis natural history is a vast encyclopaedic work and the only book by him to have survived. Utf8 start of this project gutenberg ebook natural history of pliny, vol 1 produced by turgut dincer, brian wilcox. More information about this seller contact this seller 15. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to pliny. Natural history encyclopedic scientific work by pliny. The homepage for plinys natural history the historia naturalis of c. Mingling acute observation with often wild speculation, it offers a fascinating view of the world as it was understood in the first century ad, whether describing the danger of diving for sponges, the first waterclock, or the use of asses. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read plinys natural history. Dec 20, 2016 its author is roman philosopher and scholar gaius plinius secundus, commonly known as pliny the elder ad 2379. An interesting innovation was his listing of the sources of his information. Pliny the elder, roman savant and author of the celebrated natural history, an encyclopedic work of uneven accuracy that was an authority on scientific matters up to the middle ages. The natural history of pliny, volume 2 bohns classical library the natural history of pliny, henry thomas riley.
Direct observation, informed speculation and common knowledge are combined to present a key snapshot of ancient thought and the romans. Pliny the elder, natural history loeb classical library. Pliny the elder wrote the worlds first encyclopedia. Gaius plinius secundus, 23 79 ce was a roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, a naval and army commander of the early roman empire, and friend of the emperor vespasian.
Though he wrote many books on history and biography, the elder pliny is most noted for his work natural history which is an encyclopedic compendium of the knowledge of his day. From antiquity through the middle ages and into the renaissance, plinys massive compilation of knowledge remained. Although pliny did not distinguish between fact, opinion, and speculation in his 37volume treatise, he can be credited with the creation of the first scientific encyclopaedia. Natural history pliny wikimili, the free encyclopedia. It is no disparagement to hollands merits, as a diligent and generally faithful translator, to say that his work is unsuited to the requirements of the nineteenth century. Although pliny did not distinguish between fact, opinion, and speculation in his 37volume treatise, he can be credited with. Table of contents of the others and of authorities. The only translation of plinys natural history which has hitherto appeared in the english language is that by philemon holland, published in the latter part of the reign of elizabeth. Links to translation of pliny the elder, natural history, by h. In sum there are in this book of histories and observations four. The original latin text will include a link to an english version, translated and edited in the nineteenth century by john bostock and h t riley. The natural history of pliny, volume 1 of 6 by the elder pliny free. The natural history has been translated into english by h.
Drawn entirely by zelinsky and derived from pliny the elders celebrated natural history, this book tells the tale of lion and stoatthe two greatest artists who ever livedwho compete for immortality. The project gutenberg ebook of the natural history of pliny. Pliny the elder, tireless researcher and writer, is author of the encyclopedic natural history, in 37 books, an unrivaled compendium of roman knowledge. Pliny the elder 2379 ce, tireless researcher and writer, is author of the encyclopedic natural history, in 37 books, an unrivaled compendium of roman knowledge. Spending most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, pliny wrote the encyclopedic naturalis historia natural history, which. The knowledge of the great eternal having been left 30 history of nature.
Links to translation of pliny the elder, natural history. Natural history pliny wikimili, the free encyclopedia wikimili, the free encyclopedia. The following is an adaptation of pliny the elder, the natural history, trans. Plinys natural history in thirtyseven books volume 2 by. The natural history of pliny, volume 1 of 6 by pliny, the elder author. Pliny the elder has 277 books on goodreads with 3804 ratings. Pliny the elder ad 2379 was a roman natural philosopher who was educated in rome and came into contact with celts during his military service in germany and gaul. Natural history, encyclopaedic scientific work of dubious accuracy by pliny the elder, completed in 77 ce as naturae historiae and conventionally known as naturalis historia. Natural living for a happy and healthy family coffee. For centuries the natural history served as the western worlds primary source of scientific information and theory book i summarizes the entire contents of the work, listing the authors and sometimes the titles of. Mathematical and metrological survey of the universe. A major section of the natural history, books xx to xxix, discusses matters related to medicine, especially plants that yield useful drugs.
Pliny the elder, the natural history exploring celtic. Historia naturalis was one of the first manuscripts ever printed and, perhaps more importantly, the first published natural history book. Naturalis historia is a book about the whole of the natural world in latin by pliny the elder, a roman author and naval commander who died in 79 ad. His sources were personal experience, his own prior works such as the work on germania, and extracts from other works. Rivers, ladon, issuing out of the fens of pheneus, erymanthus out of a mountain of the same name, running both down into alpheus. The rest of the cities to be named in achaea, aliphiraei, albeatae, pyrgerises, pareatse, paragenitiae, tortuni, typansei, thryasii, trittenses. Publication date 1938 topics natural history publisher. Internet archive bookreader plinys natural history. Plinys natural history is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to art and from geography to zoology. The table below is a summary based on modern names for topics. The natural history of pliny, volume 1 of 6 by the elder pliny free ebook project gutenberg.
Click on the l symbols to go to the latin text of each chapter. For the original article on pliny see dsb, see vol. American museum of natural history handbook series no. He claimed to have recorded 20,000 pieces of information, although modern scholars say he underestimated his own output. This book is available with additional data at biodiversity heritage library. English translation of pliny the elder, natural history, book 36, 101204, by d. Pliny the elders most popular book is natural history. Naturalis historia latin for natural history is an encyclopedia published circa ad 7779 by pliny the elder. He wrote the encyclopedic naturalis historia natural history, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. Pliny s last work, according to his nephew, was the naturalis historia literally natural history, an encyclopedia into which he collected much of the knowledge of his time. His nephew pliny the younger gives an indication how devoted his uncle was to reading and studying, which was like working to him.
Natural history, volume i, books 12 loeb classical library no. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. The natural history of pliny, volume 1 of 6 by the elder. This extraordinary work was originally composed and. Book 30, medicinal uses of animal products continued. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover all ancient knowledge.
The work, which was largely complete by 77 ce, is divided into 37 books and covers such subjects as botany, zoology, and astronomy. Publication date 184749 topics natural history publisher london printed for the club by g. Plinys natural history is an extraordinarily important document in the history of western science. Pliny s natural history is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to art and from geography to zoology. Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by project gutenberg. As one of the bhls founding institutional members, the museum has digitised its copy of historia naturalis, which in turn will be the bhls oldest digitised book. Natural history encyclopedic scientific work by pliny the. The project gutenberg ebook of the natural history of pliny, vol i. Pliny devised a summarium, or list of contents, at the beginning of the work that was later interpreted by modern printers as a table of contents.
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