Naturalis Historia

Pliny the Elder's 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. ... 1913 advertisement for Encyclopædia Britannica. ... Á Gaius Plinius Secundus, (23–79) better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author and Natural philosopher of some importance who wrote Naturalis Historia. ...

In its present form the Natural History consists of thirty-seven books, the first book including a characteristic preface and tables of contents, as well as lists of authorities, which were originally prefixed to each of the books separately. The contents of the remaining books are as follows:

II, mathematical and physical description of the world;

III - VI, geography and ethnography; Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos = nation and graphein = writing) refers to the qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on fieldwork. ...

VII, anthropology and human physiology; Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, human) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ...

VIII - XI, zoology; Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ...

XII - XXVII, botany, including agriculture, horticulture and pharmacology; Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... Look up horticulture in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) is drug, and logos (λόγος) is science) is the study of how chemical substances interact with living systems. ...

XXVIII - XXXII, medical zoology; Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon (φάρμακον) is drug, and logos (λόγος) is science) is the study of how chemical substances interact with living systems. ...

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). 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. ... Ancient Greeks depiction of ideal form of the body is expressed through sculptures such as this one. ... 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 perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

He apparently published the first ten books himself in AD 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, 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). Bonn is a city in Germany (Population (2004 est): 313,605 ; the 19th largest city in Germany), in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine. ... 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 also his principal guide in botany. Theophrastus is also named in his Indices. 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 (plural Augusti) is Latin for majestic or venerable. The greek equivalent is sebastos, or a mere grecization (by changing of the ending) augustos. ... Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... Aristotle (sculpture) Aristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης AristotelÄ“s; 384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. ... 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, the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school, a native of Eresus in Lesbos, was born c. ...

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. 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. An epigram is a short poem with a clever twist at the end or a concise and witty statement. ... 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. ... The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ... Pasiteles was a Neo-Attic school sculptor from Ancient Rome at the time of Julius Caesar. ... Apollodorus was a popular name in the ancient world. ... History of art usually refers to the history of the visual arts. ... // Scope and intentions According to the very earliest surviving work on the subject, Vitruvius De Architectura, good buildings should have Beauty (Venustas), Firmness (Firmitas) and Utility (Utilitas); architecture can be said to be a balance and coordination among these three elements, with none overpowering the others. ...

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 AD 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 the Asian portion of Turkey. ... Gaius Licinius Mucianus (fl. ... Emperor Vespasian Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (November 18, 9 – June 23, 79), originally known as Titus Flavius Vespasianus and best known as Vespasian, was the emperor of Rome from 69 to 79. ...

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 Laocoon in the palace of Titus 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). Laocoön (Greek Λαοκοων, pronounced roughly La-oh-koh-on), son of Acoetes, was allegedly a priest of Poseidon (or of Apollo, by some accounts) at Troy; he is famous for warning the Trojans in vain against accepting the Trojan Horse from the Greeks, and for his subsequent divine execution. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Aphrodite (Αφροδίτη, risen from sea-foam) is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. ... Scopas (Σκόπας) (c. ...

External links

Text

• complete Latin text at LacusCurtius
• First English translation by Philemon Holland, 1601; books 1‑3, 7‑13 online
• 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 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) represents, in many ways, the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ... 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. ...