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| Table of contents | |
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The Natural History consists of 37 books. Pliny devised his own table of contents. The table below is a summary based on modern names for topics.
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
Mining and mineralogy, especially in its application to life and art, including:
gold
casting in silver[2]
statuary in bronze[3]
painting[4]
modelling [5]
sculpture in marble[6]
precious stones and gems[7]
[edit] Tags:Mathematical,Geography,Ethnography,Anthropology,Physiology,Zoology,Botany,Agriculture,Horticulture,Pharmacology,Mineralogy,Gold,Silver,Statuary,Bronze,Painting,Sculpture In Marble,Precious Stones And Gems,Edit,Natural History,Pliny,Gems,Mining,Tin, | |
| Purpose | |
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The scheme of his great work was vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an encyclopedia of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature or draw their materials from nature. He admits that
My subject is a barren one – the world of nature, or in other words life; and that subject in its least elevated department, and employing either rustic terms or foreign, nay barbarian words that actually have to be introduced with an apology. Moreover, the path is not a beaten highway of authorship, nor one in which the mind is eager to range: there is not one of us who has made the same venture, nor yet one Roman who has tackled single-handed all departments of the subject.
He admits the problems of writing such a work:
It is a difficult task to give novelty to what is old, authority to what is new, brilliance to the common-place, light to the obscure, attraction to the stale, credibility to the doubtful, but nature to all things and all her properties to nature.
[edit] Tags:Encyclopedia,Roman, | |
| Sources | |
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For this work, he studied the original authorities on each subject and was most assiduous in making excerpts from their pages. His indices auctorum are, in some cases, the authorities he had actually consulted (though they are not exhaustive); in other cases, they represent the principal writers on the subject, whose names are borrowed second-hand for his immediate authorities. He frankly acknowledges his obligations to all his predecessors in a phrase that deserves to be proverbial,[8]
plenum ingenni pudoris fateri per quos profeceris.
to own up to those who were the means of one's own achievements
Any criticism of his faults of omission is disarmed by the candour of the confession in his preface[citation needed]:
nec dubitamus multa esse quae et nos praeterierint; homines enim sumus et occupati officiis.
Nor do we doubt that many things have escaped us also; for we are but human, and beset with duties
In the preface, the author claims to have stated 20,000 facts gathered from some 2,000 books and from 100 select authors.[9] 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).[citation needed]
A statue of Octavian, c. 30 BC
Bust of Agrippa, Louvre
One of Pliny's authorities 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. Another work by Theophrastus, On Stones was a useful source of information on ores and minerals. He made use of all of the Greek histories available at the time, such as those of Herodotus and Thucydides, as well as the famous Bibliotheca historica of Diodorus Siculus.[citation needed]
[edit] Tags:Latin,Heinrich Brunn,Bonn,Varro,Agrippa,Augustus,Aristotle,Juba,Mauretanian,Theophrastus,On Stones,Ores,Minerals,Herodotus,Thucydides,Bibliotheca Historica,Diodorus Siculus,Greek, | |
| Working method | |
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The following is a description of his methods of work on the natural history by his nephew, Pliny the Younger:
Does it surprise you that a busy man found time to finish so many volumes, many of which deal with such minute details? You will wonder the more when I tell you that he for many years pleaded in the law courts, that he died in his fifty-seventh year, and that in the interval his time was taken up and his studies were hindered by the important offices he held and the duties arising out of his friendship with the Emperors. But he possessed a keen intellect; he had a marvellous capacity for work, and his powers of application were enormous. He used to begin to study at night on the Festival of Vulcan, not for luck but from his love of study, long before dawn; in winter he would commence at the seventh hour or at the eighth at the very latest, and often at the sixth. He could sleep at call, and it would come upon him and leave him in the middle of his work. Before daybreak he would go to Vespasian-- for he too was a night-worker—and then set about his official duties. On his return home he would again give to study any time that he had free. Often in summer after taking a meal, which with him, as in the old days, was always a simple and light one, he would lie in the sun if he had any time to spare, and a book would be read aloud, from which he would take notes and extracts. For he never read without taking extracts, and used to say that there never was a book so bad that it was not good in some passage or another. After his sun bath he usually bathed in cold water, then he took a snack and a brief nap, and subsequently, as though another day had begun, he would study till dinner-time. After dinner a book would be read aloud, and he would take notes in a cursory way. I remember that one of his friends, when the reader pronounced a word wrongly, checked him and made him read it again, and my uncle said to him, "Did you not catch the meaning?" When his friend said "yes," he remarked, "Why then did you make him turn back? We have lost more than ten lines through your interruption." So jealous was he of every moment lost.
[edit] Tags:Vespasian,Pliny The Younger,Festival Of Vulcan,Lead, | |
| Style | |
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Ancient bust of Seneca
His style betrays the influence of Seneca[citation needed]. It aims less at clearness and vividness than at epigrammatic point. It abounds not only in antitheses, but also in questions and exclamations, tropes and metaphors, and other mannerisms of the Silver Age. The rhythmical and artistic form of the sentence is sacrificed to a passion for emphasis that delights in deferring the point to the close of the period[citation needed]. The structure of the sentence is also apt to be loose and straggling. There is an excessive use of the ablative absolute, and ablative phrases are often appended in a kind of vague "apposition" to express the author's own opinion of an immediately previous statement, e.g.,[10]
dixit (Apelles) … uno se praestare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere, memorabili praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam.
[edit] Tags:Seneca,Epigrammatic,Antitheses,Tropes,Metaphors,Mannerisms,Silver Age,Ablative, | |
| First publication | |
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Common Dolphin
Pliny 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,[11] has apparently forgotten that both are to be found in his uncle's work.[12] 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."[13]
The probable absence of the author's final revision may partly account for many repetitions, for some contradictions, for mistakes in passages borrowed from Greek authors, and for the insertion of marginal additions at wrong places in the text. Alternatively (or in addition), the work has been transcribed many times, and the chances of poor copying can only have increased as copies multiplied.
[edit] Tags:Dolphin,Vadimonian Lake, | |
| Manuscripts | |
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Pliny's Natural History, mid-12th century manuscript, Abbaye of Saint-Vincent, Le Mans, France
About the middle of the 3rd century, an abstract of the geographical portions of Pliny's work was produced by Solinus; and early in the 4th century, the medical passages were collected in the Medicina Plinii. Early in the 8th century, we find Bede in possession of an excellent manuscript of parts of the work. Bede used the work in his own book "De Rerum Natura", especially the sections on meteorology and gems. However, he updated and corrected Pliny on the tides.
In the 9th century, Alcuin sends to Charlemagne for a copy of the earlier books;[14] and Dicuil gathers extracts from the pages of Pliny for his own Mensura orbis terrae (ca. 825).
Pliny's work was held in high esteem in the Middle Ages. The number of extant manuscripts is about 200; but the best of the more ancient manuscripts, that at Bamberg State Library, contains only books xxxii–xxxvii. Robert of Cricklade, prior of St. Frideswide's Priory at Oxford, dedicated to Henry II a Defloratio consisting of nine books of selections taken from one of the manuscripts of this class, which has been recently recognized as sometimes supplying us with the only evidence for the true text. Among the later manuscripts, the codex Vesontinus, formerly at Besançon (11th century), has been divided into three portions, now in Rome, Paris, and Leiden respectively, while there is also a transcript of the whole of this manuscript at Leiden.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the multiplicity of texts in circulation, many were in a poor state. Thus, when Petrarch bought a copy in Mantua in 1350, he wrote:
What would Cicero, or Livy, or the other great men of the past, Pliny above all, think if they could return to life and read their own works?
He answered his own rhetorical question that they would scarcely recognise them, owing to corruptions and errors that had over the years built up in the texts, an inevitable result of multiple hand copying. Petrarch went on to correct some of the most barbarous texts, but translation was difficult owing to the way Pliny, for example, introduced non-Latin words or described techniques long since lost or forgotten.
[edit] Tags:Le Mans,France,Solinus,Medicina Plinii,Bede,Meteorology,Tides,Alcuin,Charlemagne,Dicuil,Middle Ages,Bamberg State Library,Robert Of Cricklade,Prior,St. Frideswide's Priory,Oxford,Henry Ii,Besançon,Paris,Leiden,Petrarch,Mantua, | |
| Printed copies | |
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One of the earliest illustrated copies of the Natural History
The work was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed, at Venice in 1469 by Johann and Wendelin of Speyer, but the text was, in the words of J. F. Healy, "distinctly imperfect". The next important edition is Philemon Holland's much improved translation of 1601, and further versions multiplied as Pliny's reputation grew during the Renaissance. It inspired many scholars to look again at the achievements of the classical world and the ways nature could be studied. It helped revive interest in minerals and mining, for example, and Pliny is much quoted by Georg Agricola in his magnum opus De Re Metallica.
Sir Thomas Browne expressed a wholesome skepticism about Pliny's dependability in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646):[15]
"Now what is very strange, there is scarce a popular error passant in our days, which is not either directly expressed, or diductively contained in this Work; which being in the hands of most men, hath proved a powerful occasion of their propagation. Wherein notwithstanding the credulity of the Reader is more condemnable then the curiosity of the Author: for commonly he nameth the Authors from whom he received those accounts, and writes but as he reads, as in his Preface to Vespasian he acknowledgeth."
[edit] Tags:Printed,Venice,Johann And Wendelin Of Speyer,Philemon Holland,Renaissance,Georg Agricola,De Re Metallica,Thomas Browne,Pseudodoxia Epidemica, | |
| Highlights | |
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The work divides neatly into the organic world of plants and animals and the realm of inorganic matter, although there are frequent digressions in each section. He is especially interested in not just describing the occurrence of plants and animals, but also their exploitation (or abuse) by man, especially Romans. The description of metals and minerals is particularly detailed and valuable for the history of science as being the most extensive compilation still available from the ancient world.
[edit] Tags:Metals,History Of Science, | |
| Anthropology | |
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He wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning. Anything she touches turns sour including wine and meat. Seeds turn sterile, and plants wither. If she strips naked and walks around the field, caterpillars, worms and beetles fall off the ears of corn. Even when not menstruating, she can lull a storm out at sea by stripping.[16]
[edit] Tags:Menstruating,Hailstorms, | |
| Botany | |
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Papyrus plants at Syracuse, Sicily
Spiny dye-murex used to make purple in Pliny's day
A black pearl and a shell of the black-lipped pearl oyster
A special interest attaches to his account of the manufacture of papyrus and the various grades of papyrus available to Romans. Different types of trees and the properties of the wood from them receives a vigorous treatment. He describes the olive tree in some detail, praising its virtues as one might expect. Botany is well discussed by Pliny, using Theophrastus as one of his sources.
Rosa Gallica
One of his favourite topics is spices, such as pepper, ginger and cane sugar. The latter, rather surprisingly, is used only as a medicine. He mentions several different varieties of pepper, complaining of their cost, comparable with that of gold and silver. Pliny is critical of luxury, but yet spends much time describing rare and expensive products popular with the rich and famous of Rome and is particularly scathing about perfumes:
Perfumes are the most pointless of luxuries, for pearls and jewels are at least passed on the one's heirs, and clothes last for a time, but perfumes lose their fragrance and perish as soon as they are used.
He does give a summary of their ingredients, such as attar of roses, which he says is the most widely used base. Other substances added are myrrh, cinnamon, and balsam gum, to mention but a few.
[edit] Tags:Syracuse, Sicily,Papyrus, | |
| Zoology | |
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A mosquito and a fly in a Baltic amber necklace
In zoology, he mentions the different kinds of purple dye, especially the murex snail, which was the highly prized source of Tyrian purple. He describes the elephant and hippopotamus in detail, as well as the value and origin of the pearl and the invention of fish farming and oyster farming. Aquaria were popular pastimes of the rich, and Pliny provides several amusing anecdotes of the problems of owners becoming too closely attached to their fishes.
Honey bee on tufted vetch
The discussion of the origin of amber is especially incisive, and he correctly identifies the source as being the fossilised resin of pine trees. One piece of evidence is that some samples exhibit encapsulated insects, a feature that is readily explained if the original material is a viscous resin. He refers to the way in which it will exert a charge when rubbed, a property well known to Theophrastus. Pliny devotes considerable space to bees, which he admires for their industry and organisation, and of course their honey. Pliny relies on many previous authors and describes the use of smoke by beekeepers at the hive to collect the honeycombs. He also discusses the queen bee and her crucial role in the swarm.
His description of the song of the nightingale is an elaborate example of his occasional felicity of phrase.
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| Metallurgy | |
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Gold nuggets
Gold pounded into a paper-thin sheet of metal leaf
Agrippina and Claudius on gold aureus
Pliny has an extensive discussion of metals including gold, silver, copper, mercury, lead, tin and iron, as well as their many alloys such as electrum, bronze, pewter, and steel. He devotes much space to a long discussion about the greed for gold, such as the absurdity of using the metal for coins in the early Republic. He gives several examples of the way rulers proclaimed their prowess by exhibiting gold loot from their campaigns, such as that by Claudius after conquering Britain, as well as relating the stories of Midas and Croesus. He then proceeds to discuss why the metal is unique in its malleability and ductility being far greater than any other metal. The examples given are its capability of being beaten into fine foil with just one ounce, producing 750 leaves four inches square. Fine gold wire can be woven into cloth, although imperial clothes usually combined it with natural fibres like wool. He once saw Agrippina the Younger, wife of Claudius, at a public show on the Fucine Lake involving a naval battle, wearing a military cloak made of gold.
Given gold's value and importance to the Romans, its occurrence and extraction receives a long section of text and starts with a rejection of the ideas initiated by Herodotus of Indian gold obtained by ants or dug up by griffins in Scythia. The section is discussed in more detail below.
Goddess Minerva on a Roman silver plate, 1st century BCE
Silver comes next in Pliny's pantheon of greed. It does not occur in native form and has to be mined, usually occurring with lead ores. Spain produced the most silver in his time, many of the mines having been started by Hannibal. One of the largest had galleries running for between one and two miles into the mountain, "water-men" (which he calls "aquatini") draining the mine, and they
stood night and day in shifts measured by lamps, bailing out water and making a stream.
Pliny is probably referring to the reverse overshot water-wheels operated by treadmill and found in Roman mines in the 1920s as discussed below. Britain, he says, is very rich in lead, which is found on the surface at many places, and thus very easy to extract; production was so high that a law was passed attempting to restrict mining.
Roman coins were struck, not cast, so these coin moulds were created for forgery
Another of Pliny's obsessions is with fraud and forgery, and in particular coin counterfeiting by mixing copper with silver, or even admixture with iron. Tests had been developed for counterfeit coins and proved very popular with the victims, mostly ordinary people. In the same section, he deals with the liquid metal mercury, which is also found in silver mines. He correctly says it is toxic, and amalgamates with gold, so is used for refining and extraction of that metal. He says mercury is used for gilding copper. Antimony is found in silver mines and is used as an eyebrow cosmetic.
Cinnabar
The main ore of mercury is cinnabar, long used as a pigment by painters. He says that the colour is similar to that of the cochineal insect. The dust is very toxic, so workers handling the material wear face masks of bladder skin. Copper and bronze are, says Pliny, most famous for their use in statues, of which there were many in Rome. Their most extravagant use was in colossi, gigantic statues as tall as towers, the most famous being the Colossus of Rhodes. He personally saw the massive statue of Nero in Rome, which was later removed after the emperor committed suicide. The face of the statue was modified shortly after Nero's, death during Vespasian's reign, to make it truly a statue of Sol. Hadrian moved it, with the help of the architect Decrianus and 24 elephants, to a position next to the Flavian Amphitheater. This building took the name Colosseum in the Middle Ages, after the statue nearby.
He gives a special place to iron, distinguishing the hardness of steel from what we now call wrought iron, a softer grade with (we know now) a smaller carbon content. He is scathing about the use of iron:
and yet in other places we dig with sheer recklessness when iron is needed – a metal even more welcome than gold amid the bloodshed of war.
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| Mineralogy | |
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Octahedral shape of diamond
He describes many different minerals and gemstones, building on works by Theophrastus and other authors. The topic concentrates on the most valuable gemstones, because it gives him yet another opportunity to criticize the obsession with luxury products such as engraved gems and hardstone carvings.
Mineral fluorite
He provides a thorough discussion of the properties of fluorspar, noting that it is carved into vases and other decorative objects. It is often banded with purple colours, which is presumably why the Romans regarded it so highly.
He accurately describes the octahedral shape of the diamond and proceeds to mention that diamond dust is used by gem engravers to cut and polish other gems owing to its great hardness. His recognition of the importance of crystal shape is a precursor to modern crystallography, while mention of numerous other minerals presages mineralogy. He also recognises that other minerals have characteristic crystal shapes, but in one example, confuses the crystal habit with the work of lapidaries.
Quartz crystal showing transparency
Rock crystal is valuable for its transparency and hardness, he says, and can be carved into vessels and implements. Pliny relates the story of a woman who owned a ladle made of the mineral, paying the sum of 150,000 Tags: | |
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