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.
Although Pliny did not distinguish between fact, opinion, and speculation in his 37-volume treatise, he can be credited with the creation of the first scientific encyclopaedia. For centuries the Natural History served as the Western world’s primary source of scientific information and theory.
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 his material. Book II is devoted to astronomy; Books III through VI, geography; VII through XI, zoology; XII through XIX, botany—and it is here that Pliny made his most substantial scientific contribution; XX through XXXII, medicine, including many moralistic comments on the deleterious effects of high living; and XXXIII through XXXVII, geology and mineralogy.
Niccolò Leoniceno’s 1492 tract on the errors of Pliny was the first of several works questioning the accuracy and usefulness of the Natural History. By the end of the 17th century, as the scientific method of empirical observation replaced speculation, the work had been superseded.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
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Indonesia: The archipelago: its prehistory and early historical records…Roman historian Pliny the Elder’s
Natural History suggests that, in the 1st centuryce , Indonesian outriggers were engaged in trade with the east coast of Africa. Indonesian settlements may have existed at that time in Madagascar, an island with distinct Indonesian cultural traits. The geographer Ptolemy, in the following century,… -
astronomy: Medieval Europe…II of Pliny the Elder’s
Naturalis historia (Natural History , 1st centuryce ) contained a summary of astronomical matters. In the 4th century Martianus Capella wrote an allegorical poem,De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (The Marriage of Philology and Mercury ). In the two introductory books, Philology, personified as a maiden, is… -
encyclopaedia: The length of encyclopaedias and encyclopaedic articlesPliny’s
Historia naturalis comprised about 2,500 chapters, Zedler’sUniversal-Lexicon was planned for 12 volumes and eventually filled 64; the publishers of theEncyclopédie were faced with a lawsuit (1768–78) for producing a 26-volume encyclopaedia instead of the 10 volumes they had promised; Johann Samuel Ersch and… -
encyclopaedia: Three stages of development…reached their culmination in Pliny’s
Historia naturalis , which was issued in the time of the Roman emperor Titus (39–81ce ). Not one of the encyclopaedias of Pliny or his predecessors paid much attention to religion; if it was discussed, the approach was antiquarian, the gods of the different nations ruled… -
encyclopaedia: Early development…important Roman contribution was the
Historia naturalis of Pliny the Elder, a vast work constituting a kind of classified anthology of information. Although undiscriminating in its record of fact and fancy, it was nevertheless very influential; the Latin grammarian and writer Gaius Julius Solinus drew nearly 90 percent of his…
More About Natural History
11 references found in Britannica articlesAssorted References
- account of Indonesian trade
- contribution by Vitruvius
- In Vitruvius
- discussed in biography
- example of encyclopaedia
contribution to
Roman science
- astronomy
- botany
- Latin literature
