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Natural History (Pliny)

The ancient encyclopedia that shaped natural history.

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It covers the natural world, but its encyclopedic structure differs from modern reference works.[1][2] Pliny's nephew described it as "a comprehensive and learned work, covering as wide a field as Nature herself".[3] Pliny the Elder authored the Latin compilation known as the Natural History, which gathers material from numerous ancient writers.[1]

Making and release

Pliny wrote the first ten books in AD 77 and was revising the rest until his death.[4] Much of his writing was done at night, as he explains in the preface addressed to Vespasian's son Titus.[5] Alongside his duties as an imperial administrator serving Emperor Vespasian, Pliny pursued his scholarly writing.[5] Pliny the Younger, the author's nephew, likely issued the work after Pliny's death with minimal editing.[4]

At the work's start, Pliny placed a summarium, an enumerated overview of contents.[6] In 1469, Venice saw the printing of this text, making it one of the earliest ancient European works to be put into print.[7] Since 1601, Philemon Holland's English version of the Natural History has had a lasting impact on literature.[7] A complete English rendition by John Bostock and H. T. Riley was released in 1855.[8]

What the cited sources add

This manuscript ranks among the biggest medieval parchment codices; each of its leaves required an entire animal hide.[9] The scribe likely copied it directly from a source written in italic uncial script.[10] Around AD 796, VLF 4 was taken to the Frankish court at Aachen, a move connected to Alcuin's involvement in the Carolingian Renaissance.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Natural History Book II, I.2 idemque rerum naturae opus et rerum ipsa natura. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Introduction" to Natural History, Bks. I–II, Loeb Classical Library (rev. ed. 1989), pp. vii–x.; Natural History VIII:44 (Loeb); Natural History. Dedication to Titus: C. Plinius Secundus to his Friend Titus Vespasian (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Pliny the Younger, Letters, 3.5; see also The True Story of Lake Vadimo .. facts only, no text reused. attalus.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sandys 1911, p. 841–844; Pliny the Younger, Letters, 8.20, 9.33; Pliny the Elder, "Natural History"; Pliny the Younger, Letters, 3.5; see also The True Story of Lake Vadimo . (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Natural History. Dedication to Titus: C. Plinius Secundus to his Friend Titus Vespasian; Sandys 1911, p. 841–844; Natural History XXXVII:77 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Doody 2010, p. 9 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Healy, 2004. Introduction:xxxix; Healy, 2004. Introduction:xxxix (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Healy, 2004. Introduction:xxxix; Holland, "The Historie of the World, Commonly called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus", University of Chicago, 1601; Bostock, "Pliny the Elder, The Natural History", Perseus at Tufts, 1855; Pliny, "Natural history, a selection", Penguin Books, 1991 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Garrison, "An Insular Copy of Pliny's Naturalis historia (Leiden UB VLF 4 fol 4–33)", Writing in Context: Insular Manuscript Culture 500–1200 (Ed.) Erik Kwakkel (Leiden 2013) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Natural History (Pliny)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Marshall, "Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics", Clarendon Press, 1983, p. 307–316 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Natural History (Pliny) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Test yourself on TriviaCafe: Who wrote "Natural History": Edgar Allan Poe, Pliny the Elder, Viktor Frankl or Ibn Khaldun? · More literature trivia

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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