The natural history by pliny the elder free at loyal books. As a guide to the cultural meanings of everyday things in ancient rome it is unparalleled. The contents of the remaining books are as follows. Pliny the elder pliny, the elder the online books page. Natural history pliny currently redirects to naturalis historia, the result of a recent page move.
Plinys natural history is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges. The numbering of the letters in this book has been changed slightly to bring it into line with the most recent editions. Pliny the elder, tireless researcher and writer, is author of th. The world, and this whatever other name men have chosen to designate the sky whose vaulted roof encircles the universe is fitly believed to be a deity, eternal, immeasurable, a being that never began. Pliny himself defines his scope as the natural world, or life. Grieving his loss, pliny the younger inherited the elders notebooksfilled with pearls of wisdomand his legacy. Natural history encyclopedic scientific work by pliny the elder. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Pliny the elders natural history trevor murphy oxford. The elder pliny on the human animal mary beagon oxford. Plinius secundus nouocomensis equestribus militiis industrie functus by. The identification of plants mentioned in the natural history is a difficult matter. It is encyclopedic in scope, but its structure is not like that of a modern encyclopedia. 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.
Upon this occasion we must not omit to mention the admiration that is lavished upon this plant by the gauls. Natural history, encyclopaedic scientific work of dubious accuracy by pliny the elder, completed in 77 ce as naturae historiae and conventionally known as naturalis historia. For what subject is more fresh or affords more abundant materials and scope, or, in a word, is more fitted for poetic treatment. Details plinys natural history in thirtyseven books biodiversity. Pliny the elders natural history, from firstcentury rome, is the most important surviving encyclopedia of the ancient world. The project gutenberg ebook of the natural history of pliny, vol i. This book is available with additional data at biodiversity heritage library. Pliny the elder, tireless researcher and writer, is author of the encyclopedic natural history, in 37 books, an unrivaled compendium of roman knowledge. Although pliny did not distinguish between fact, opinion, and speculation in. Pliny the elder wrote the worlds first encyclopedia. The project gutenberg ebook of the natural history of. Barclay, 184749, also by philemon holland and wernerian club page images at hathitrust pliny, the elder.
As part of a new direction in classical scholarship, trevor murphy reads the work not just for the information it contains, but to understand how and why pliny collects and presents. It is the only work by pliny to have survived, and the last tha. Plinys is an organic work, as shakespeares crowded plays or montaignes essays are. This extraordinary work was originally composed and. This new and attractive form in which the volumes of bohns standard library are being issued is not meant to hide either indifference in the selection of books included in this wellknown. More information about this seller contact this seller 16. Pliny himself died while investigating the volcanic eruption that destroyed pompeii in ad 79, and the natural curiosity that brought about his death is also very much evident in the natural history a book that proved highly influential right up until the renaissance and that his nephew, pliny the younger, described as full of variety as. Topics included are the mathematics and metrology of the. Pliny the elders natural history is a vast encyclopaedia, surveying natural phenomena from cosmology to biology, medicine to magic. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position. Drawn entirely by zelinsky and derived from pliny the elders celebrated natural history, this book tells the tale of lion and stoatthe two greatest artists who ever livedwho compete for immortality. Plinys historia naturalis natural history is a vast encyclopaedic work and the only book by him to have survived. When pliny the elder perished at stabiae during the eruption of vesuvius in 79 ad, he left behind an enormous compendium of knowledge, his thirtysevenvolume natural history, and a teenaged nephew who revered him as a father.
Questia read the fulltext online edition of natural history of pliny vol. His greatest and only surviving work, the natural history, has been called one of the most influential. Hide browse bar your current position in the text is marked in blue. He served as cavalry officer in germany and governor procurator in. In addition, however, it provides valuable insight into the extraordinary complex of ideas and beliefs current in plinys era, many of which have resonances for other eras and cultures. Naturally he made mistakes due to misunderstandings. As a detailed study of the human animal, described by its author as the raison detre of nature, book seven of the elder plinys natural history is crucial to the understanding of the work as a whole. The natural history of pliny, volume 3 bohns classical library the natural history of pliny, pliny the elder. Pliny the elder naturalis historia latin for natural history is an encyclopedia published circa ad 7779 by pliny the elder.
Life born into the municipal aristocracy of comum, pliny plihnee the elder followed an equestrian career. Plinys natural history in thirtyseven books london. This book is available with additional data at biodiversity. Librivox recording of the natural history, volume 3, by pliny the elder. Pliny the elders natural history is an encyclopedia written by pliny the elder in its present form the natural history consists of thirtyseven 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. Pliny the elder, tireless researcher and writer, is author of t. I ran a first proofreading pass immediately after entering each book, so that the text of all the books is quite good already. The only translation of plinys natural history which has hitherto appeared in the. Pliny the elders natural history is unparalleled as a guide to the cultural meanings of everyday things in firstcentury rome. You are doing quite right to get together materials for a history of the dacian war. 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 works subject area is thus not limited to what is today understood by natural history. Firth 1900 a few words and phrases have been modified. Pliny the elder wrote many works of history and biography, but he is best known for his book called natural history which gives moderns a good idea about the thinking of the ancients about biology, science, and medicine. His natural history contained over a million words in 37 volumes pliny attempted to document all known facts about the natural world.
Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read plinys natural history. Pliny was not a botanist, but derived his information from books, which were often read aloud to him while he took notes, and not studied at leisure. Concentrating on plinys accounts of foreign lands and peoples, monsters, and barbarians, trevor murphy demonstrates the political significance of this. Naturalis historia latin for natural history is an encyclopedia published circa ad 7779 by pliny the elder. Publication date 1938 topics natural history publisher. The guinness is a compilation of isolated and insipid facts. Natural history encyclopedic scientific work by pliny. Buy natural history penguin classics reprint by pliny the elder, john healey isbn. Page 550 the imprint of bohns standard library is a guaranty of good editing. Buy plinys natural history in thirtyseven books on. The project gutenberg ebook of the natural history of pliny, volume 1 of 6, by pliny the elder this ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the united states and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. Book i summarizes the entire contents of the work, listing the authors and sometimes the titles of the books many of which are now lost from which pliny derived.
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