The comments at the bottom of the letters have been added from various sources. As one of the largest and most comprehensive surviving works from the roman empire, pliny the elders natural history offers a rare glimpse into the scholarship of the ancient world. The complete latin text of book xxxvi of the historia naturalis of c. The 37volume history had a table of contents that, when translated into english, required more than 70 pages. The first and thirtythird books of pliny were translated by dr. The eclipse of the moon affords an undoubted argument. The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th books are on geography, in which is contained an account of the situation of the different countries, the inhabitants, the seas, towns, harbours, mountains, rivers, and. Shipping may be from our sydney, nsw warehouse or from our uk or us warehouse, depending. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. 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. There are two english translations of pliny online.
American museum of natural history handbook series no. 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. Naturalis historia is an early encyclopedia published circa ad 7779 by pliny the elder. For the original article on pliny see dsb, see vol. The voynich code the worlds most mysterious manuscript the secrets of nature duration. The project gutenberg ebook of the natural history of pliny, vol i. Barclay, 184749, also by philemon holland and wernerian club page images at hathitrust pliny, the elder. Links to translation of pliny the elder, natural history attalus. Copies of plinys natural history have been preserved the. Lacuscurtius pliny the elders natural history book 36. 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 natural history became a model for later encyclopedias and scholarly works as a result of its breadth of subject matter, its referencing.
The table below is a summary based on modern names for topics. A novel feature of the natural history is the care taken by pliny in naming his sources, more than 100 of which are mentioned. Links to translation of pliny the elder, natural history. The project gutenberg ebook of the natural history of. Natural history pliny wikimili, the free encyclopedia wikimili, the free encyclopedia. Pliny the elder, who died during the eruption of vesuvius in 79 a.
This extraordinary work was originally composed and. Table of contents of the others and of authorities. The letters of pliny the younger gaius plinius caecilius secundus are presented here in the english translation by j. Plinys natural history is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to art and from geography to zoology. Pliny the elder wrote the worlds first encyclopedia. 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. Natural history encyclopedic scientific work by pliny. 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. Plinys historia naturalis natural history is a vast encyclopaedic work and the only book by him to have survived. 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, tireless researcher and writer, is author of the encyclopedic natural history, in 37 books, an unrivaled compendium of roman knowledge the contents of the books are as follows. Contributor university of california libraries language english. He claimed to have recorded 20,000 pieces of information, although modern scholars say he underestimated his own output. 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.
From antiquity through the middle ages and into the renaissance, plinys massive compilation of knowledge remained a. In 37 books, pliny the eldernot to be confused with his nephew, pliny the youngercovers botany, zoology, astronomy, geology, geography, mineralogy, and how each of these interact with roman life. In plinys 37 volumes of natural history, volume 1 mostly summarized the remaining 36 books. Plinys natural history which has hitherto appeared in the english language is that. Search the history of over 431 billion web pages on the internet. Philemon hollands english translation of 1601 has influenced literature ever since.
Jones in their loeb edition, with the latin text on facing pages. 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. The natural history of pliny, volume 1 of 6 by pliny, the elder author. Saturn and mars are invisible at most for 170 days. The homepage for plinys natural history the historia naturalis of c. Natural history pliny wikimili, the free encyclopedia. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read pliny the elder. 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. Selections from the history of the world, commonly called the natural history of c. 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. Pliny the elder students britannica kids homework help. Plinys natural history is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to zoology, covering botany, medicine, geography, magic, metallurgy and religion along the way. To an english one, the botanist is not sure that a variety included by pliny. His natural history contained over a million words in 37 volumes pliny attempted to document all known facts about the natural world.
Natural history, volume x, books 3637 loeb classical. Book i, in fact, is a summary of the remaining 36 books, listing the authors and sometimes the titles of the books many of which are now lost from which pliny derived his material. S jones, h rackham published in 1938 in cambridge ma by harvard university press. Pliny the elder pliny, the elder the online books page.
Plinys natural history in thirtyseven books london. Mynors 1963, in the bibliotheca augustana pliny was born in comum in 61 or 62 a. The natural history has been translated into english by h. This edition can be found on the internet archive, with the exception of the last volume by d. The following table contains links to the individual books in the translation. In writing natural history, pliny or his assistants extracted roughly 20,000 facts from 2,000 volumes by 100 authors. An english translation of this passage can be found in william smiths.
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