Naturalis Historia, 1669 edition, title page. The Latin title appears in the genitive case, Naturalis Historiae

This article is about the work by Pliny the Elder. For other meanings, see Natural History.

Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia written by Pliny the Elder. Front page of Plinys Naturalis Historia from [1] This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Front page of Plinys Naturalis Historia from [1] This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... // Events Samuel Pepys stopped writing his diary. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon, 1902 An encyclopedia, encyclopaedia or (archaically) encyclopædia,[1] is a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge. ... Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19c portrait. ...

Table of contents

In its present form the Natural History consists of 37 books,

• I: Preface and tables of contents, lists of authorities,
• II: mathematical and physical description of the world;
• III-VI: geography and ethnography;
• VII: anthropology and human physiology;
• VIII-XI: zoology;
• XII-XXVII: botany, including agriculture, horticulture and pharmacology;
• XXVIII-XXXII: pharmacology;
• XXXIII-XXXVII: mineralogy, especially in its application to life and art, including chasing in silver (xxxiii.154-751), statuary in bronze (xxxiv), painting (xxxv.15-941), modelling (151-851), and sculpture in marble (xxxvi).

Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos = nation and graphein = writing) refers to the genre of writing that presents qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on fieldwork. ... Initiation rite of the Yao people of Malawi Anthropology (from the Greek word , man or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ... Zoology is the biological discipline which involves the study of non-human animals. ... Pinguicula grandiflora Botany is the scientific study of plantlife. ... The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how substances interact with living organisms to produce a change in function. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how substances interact with living organisms to produce a change in function. ... Mineralogy is an earth science that involves the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... why hello hello Sculptor redirects here. ... Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast-metal sculpture of bronze is often called a bronze. ... The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the Western world. ... Marble sculpture is the art of creating three-dimensional forms from marble. ...

Production and sources

He apparently published the first ten books himself in 77, and was engaged on revising and enlarging the rest during the two remaining years of his life. The work was probably published with little, if any, revision by the author's nephew Pliny the Younger, who, when telling the story of a tame dolphin, and describing the floating islands of the Vadimonian Lake, thirty years later (viii. 20, ix. 33), has apparently forgotten that both are to be found in his uncle's work (ii. 209, ix. 26). He describes the Naturalis historia, as a Naturae historia, and characterizes it as a "work that is learned and full of matter, and as varied as nature herself." For other uses, see number 77. ... Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (63-ca. ...

The absence of the author's final revision may partly account for many repetitions, and for some contradictions, for mistakes in passages borrowed from Greek authors, and for the insertion of marginal additions at wrong places in the text.

In the preface the author claims to have stated 20,000 facts gathered from some 2,000 books and from 100 select authors. The extant lists of his authorities amount to many more than 400, including 146 of Roman and 327 of Greek and other sources of information. The lists, as a general rule, follow the order of the subject matter of each book. This has been clearly shown in Heinrich Brunn's Disputatio (Bonn, 1856). Heinrich Brunn Heinrich Brunn (January 23, 1822 – July 23, 1894) was a German archaeologist. ... Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany, located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Pliny's principal authority is Varro. In the geographical books Varro is supplemented by the topographical commentaries of Agrippa which were completed by the emperor Augustus; for his zoology he relies largely on Aristotle and on Juba, the scholarly Mauretanian king, studiorum claritate memorabilior quam regno (v. 16). Juba is one of his principal guides in botany; Theophrastus is also named in his Indices, and since Theophrastus's botanical work survives, it is possible to see the extent to which Pliny uses him, translating (and occasionally mistranslating) Theophrastus's difficult Greek into Latin. Marcus Terentius Varro ([[116 BC]–27 BC), also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Roman scholar and writer, who the Romans came to call the most learned of all the Romans. ... Agrippa may refer to: Menenius Agrippa, a Roman consul in 503 BC. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (63–12 BC), Roman statesman and general, friend of Augustus Caesar. ... Augustus (Latin: IMP•CAESAR•DIVI•F•AVGVSTVS;[1] September 23, 63 BC–August 19, AD 14), known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (English Octavian; Latin: C•IVLIVS•C•F•CAESAR•OCTAVIANVS) for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, was the first and among the most important of... Zoology is the biological discipline which involves the study of non-human animals. ... Aristotle (Greek: AristotélÄ“s) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Juba of Mauretania was a metrist who lived in Mauretania in the 2nd century. ... Mauretania was a Berber kingdom on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa (named after the Mauri tribe, after whom the Moors were named), corresponding to western Algeria and northern Morocco. ... Theophrastus (Greek Θεόφραστος, 370 — about 285 BC), a native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. ...

In the History of Art the original Greek authorities are Duris of Samos, Xenocrates of Sicyon, and Antigonus of Carystus. The anecdotic element has been ascribed to Duris (xxxiv. 61, Lysippum Sicyonium Duris begat nullius fuisse discipulum etc.); the notices of the successive developments of art, and the list of workers in bronze and painters, to Xenocrates; and a large amount of miscellaneous information to Antigonus. The last two authorities are named in connection with Parrhasius (xxxv. 68, hanc ei gloriam concessere Antigonus et Xenocrates, qui de pictura scripsere), while Antigonus is named in the indices of xxxiii - xxxiv. as a writer on the toreutic art. Duris of Samos, Greek historian, according to his own account a descendant of Alcibiades, was born about 340 BC. He must have been born and passed his early years in exile, since from 352 to 324 Samos was occupied by Athenian cleruchs, who had expelled the original inhabitants. ... Xenokrates of Sicyon (fl. ... Antigonus of Carystus (in Euboea), Greek writer on various subjects, flourished in the 3rd century BC. After some time spent at Athens and in travelling, he was summoned to the court of Attalus I (241 BC-197 BC) of Pergamum. ... Zeuxis and Parrhasius, painters of Ephesus in the 5th century BC, are reported in the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder to have staged a contest to determine which of the two was the greater artist. ...

Greek epigrams contribute their share in Pliny's descriptions of pictures and statues. One of the minor authorities for books xxxiv - xxxv is Heliodorus, the author of a work on the monuments of Athens. In the indices to xxxiii - xxxvi an important place is assigned to Pasiteles of Naples, the author of a work in five volumes on famous works of art (xxxvi. 40), probably incorporating the substance of the earlier Greek treatises; but Pliny's indebtedness to Pasiteles is denied by Kalkmann, who holds that Pliny used the chronological work of Apollodorus, as well as a current catalogue of artists. Pliny's knowledge of the Greek authorities was probably mainly due to Varro, whom he often quotes (e.g. xxxiv. 56, xxxv. 173, 156, xxxvi. 17, 39, 41). Varro probably dealt with the history of art in connexion with architecture, which was included in his Disciplinae. It has been suggested that poetic epigram be merged into this article or section. ... Several persons named Heliodorus are known to us from ancient times, the best known of which is Heliodorus of Emesa, author of the novel Aethiopica. ... Evzones Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína IPA: ) is the capital and largest city of Greece. ... Pasiteles was a Neo-Attic school sculptor from Ancient Rome at the time of Julius Caesar. ... Apollodorus was a common name in ancient Greece. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αρχιτεκτων, a master builder, from αρχι- chief, leader and τεκτων, builder, carpenter) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. ...

For a number of items relating to works of art near the coast of Asia Minor, and in the adjacent islands, Pliny was indebted to the general, statesman, orator and historian, Gaius Licinius Mucianus, who died before 77. Pliny mentions the works of art collected by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace and in his other galleries (xxxiv. 84), but much of his information as to the position of such works in Rome is due to books, and not to personal observation. Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to... Gaius Licinius Mucianus (fl. ... Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (November 17, 9 – June 23, 79), known originally as Titus Flavius Vespasianus and usually referred to in English as Vespasian, was emperor of Rome from 69 to 79. ... The Temple of Peace (full name: Welsh National Temple of Peace and Health) is a non-religious civic building in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. ...

The main merit of his account of ancient art, the only classical work of its kind, is that it is a compilation ultimately founded on the lost text books of Xenocrates and on the biographies of Duris and Antigonus.

He shows no special aptitude for art criticism; in several passages, however, he gives proof of independent observation (xxxiv. 38, 46, 63, xxxv. 17, 20, 116 seq.). He prefers the marble Laocoön and his Sons in the palace of Titus (now in the Vatican) to all the pictures and bronzes in the world (xxxvi. 37); in the temple near the Flaminian Circus he admires the Ares and the Aphrodite of Scopas, "which would suffice to give renown to any other spot." "At Rome indeed (he adds) the works of art are legion; besides, one effaces another from the memory and, however beautiful they may be, we are distracted by the overpowering claims of duty and business; for to admire art we need leisure and profound stillness" (ibid. 26-72). Statue of Laocoön and his Sons, Vatican Museums, Rome The statue of Laocoön and his Sons, also called the Laocoön Group, is a monumental marble sculpture, now in the Vatican Museums, Rome. ... Statue of Ares, villa Hadriana In Greek mythology, Ares (battle strife; in Greek, Άρης)[1] is the son of Zeus (king of the gods) and Hera. ... The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 Aphrodite (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη, pronounced in English as and in Ancient Greek as ) was the Greek goddess of love, lust, beauty, and sexuality. ... Scopas (Σκόπας) (c. ...

External links

Text

• Complete Latin text at LacusCurtius
• Complete Latin text with translation tools at the Perseus Digital Library
• First English translation by Philemon Holland, 1601
• Second English translation by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, 1855; complete, including index

Philemon Holland (1552 - 1637) was an English translator. ...

Secondary material

• Pliny the Elder: rampant credulist, rational skeptic, or both? from the Skeptical Inquirer

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...