Natural History: Difference between revisions

Natural History is an encyclopedia of sorts written by Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer and naval commander who was born in 23 A.D., and died in 79 A.D. of a heart attack while journeying to Pompeii to rescue relatives living there . Natural History is probably the [[Ur Example]] of [[The Big Book of Everything]] , predating Isidore of Seville's Etymologies by 421 years. Like Etymologies, the point of Natural History was to document all information which was known about the world at the time. However, in hindsight, while quite a bit of the information is accurate, such as amber conducting electricity, there are also quite a few instances of [[Urban Legend]] of the time, and exaggerations, resulting in quite a few unintentional instances of [[Critical Research Failure]] by modern standards.

A translation from 1861 can be found here: https://archive.org/stream/plinysnaturalhis00plinrich#page/n0/mode/2up

* [[Big Book of Everything | Big Omnibus of Everything]]: A collection of 37 Books, covering zoology, medicine, geography, astronomy, anthropology, botany, agriculture, metallurgy, mineralogy, art history, pharmacology, meteorology, ethnography, and human physiology.

* [[Epistolary Novel]]: The book's preface takes the form a long letter written by Pliny to his friend, Emperor Vespasian. (pages 13-25)

* [[Info Dump]]: The sections on Geography rattle off swiftly the locations and layout of various nations and provinces.

*[[Mother Earth]]: Pliny documents the (then-contemporary) phenomenon amongst his peers of referring to the earth as female, and terming it "mother". (pages 99-100).