Natural History (Pliny)
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Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia written circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day, and was one of the first reference works developed in the Classical period to examine natural and man-made objects, both organic and mineral, as well as many natural phenomena. It became a model for all later encyclopedias in terms of the breadth of subject matter examined, the need to reference original authors, and a comprehensive index list of the contents. The work was dedicated to Titus. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived.
Contents |
[edit] 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: mining and mineralogy, especially in its application to life and art, including gold, chasing in silver (xxxiii.154–751), statuary in bronze (xxxiv), painting (xxxv.15–941), modelling (151–851), and sculpture in marble (xxxvi), precious stones and gems (xxxvii).
[edit] Production and sources
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 possibly 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."
The possible 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. Alternatively (or in addition) the work has been transcribed many times and the chances of poor copying can only have increased as copies multiplied.
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).
The scheme of his great work is 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 Greek who has tackled single-handed all departments of the subject.
And 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.
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.
[edit] Working method
We are fortunate to have a description of his methods of work on the Naturalis Historia through 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] Highlights
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, animals and insects, 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] Organic world
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.
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 scat