Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus, (23–79) better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author and Natural philosopher of some importance who wrote Naturalis Historia.

Literature

At the conclusion of his literary labours, as the only Roman who had ever taken for his theme the whole realm of nature, he prays for the blessing of the universal mother on his completed work.

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In literature he assigns the highest place to Homer and to Cicero (xvii.37 seq.); and the next to Virgil. He was influenced by the works of the Numidian king Juba II, who he called "my Master".

Related Topics:
Homer - Cicero - Virgil - Numidian - Juba II

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He takes a keen interest in nature, and in the natural sciences, studying them in a way that was then new in Rome, while the small esteem in which studies of this kind were held does not deter him from endeavouring to be of service to his fellow countrymen (xxii.15).

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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 it. With a view to this work he studied the original authorities on each subject and was most assiduous in making excerpts from their pages. His indices auctorum are, in some cases, the authorities which he has actually consulted (though in this respect they are not exhaustive); in other cases, they represent the principal writers on the subject, whose names are borrowed second-hand for his immediate authorities. He frankly acknowledges his obligations to all his predecessors in a phrase that deserves to be proverbial (Praef. 21, plenum ingenni pudoris fateri per quos profeceris). He had neither the temperament for original investigation, nor the leisure necessary for the purpose.

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It is obvious that one who spent all his time in reading and in writing, and in making excerpts from his predecessors, had none left for mature and independent thought, or for patient experimental observation of the phenomena of nature. But it must not be forgotten that it was his scientific curiosity as to the phenomena of the eruption of Vesuvius that brought his life of unwearied study to a premature end; and any criticism of his faults of omission is disarmed by the candour of the confession in his preface: nec dubitamus multa esse quae et nos praeterierint; homines enim sumus et occupati officiis.

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His style betrays the unhealthy influence of Seneca. It aims less at clearness and vividness than at epigrammatic point. It abounds not only in antitheses, but also in questions and exclamations, tropes and metaphors, and other mannerisms of the Silver Age. The rhythmical and artistic form of the sentence is sacrificed to a passion for emphasis that delights in deferring the point to the close of the period. The structure of the sentence is also apt to be loose and straggling. There is an excessive use of the ablative absolute, and ablative phrases are often appended in a kind of vague "apposition" to express the author's own opinion of an immediately previous statement, e.g. xxxv.80, dixit (Apelles) ... uno se praestare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere, memorabili praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam.

Related Topics:
Epigrammatic - Antitheses - Trope - Metaphor - Mannerism - Silver Age - Ablative absolute - Ablative

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About the middle of the 3rd century an abstract of the geographical portions of Pliny's work was produced by Solinus; and early in the 4th century the medical passages were collected in the Medicina Plinii. Early in the 8th century we find Bede in possession of an excellent manuscript of the whole work. In the 9th century Alcuin sends to Charlemagne for a copy of the earlier books (Epp. 103, Jaffé); and Dicuil gathers extracts from the pages of Pliny for his own Mensura orbis terrae (ca. 825).

Related Topics:
3rd century - Solinus - 4th century - 8th century - Bede - 9th century - Alcuin - Charlemagne - Dicuil - 825

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Pliny's work was held in high esteem in the Middle Ages. The number of extant manuscripts is about 200; but the best of the more ancient manuscripts, that at Bamberg, contains only books xxxii-xxxvii. Robert of Cricklade, prior of St. Frideswide at Oxford, dedicated to Henry II a Defloratio consisting of nine books of selections taken from one of the manuscripts of this class, which has been recently recognized as sometimes supplying us with the only evidence for the true text. Among the later manuscripts, the codex Vesontinus, formerly at Besançon (11th century), has been divided into three portions, now in Rome, Paris, and Leiden respectively, while there is also a transcript of the whole of this manuscript at Leiden.

Related Topics:
Middle Ages - Bamberg - Robert of Cricklade - Prior - St. Frideswide - Oxford - Henry II - Besançon - 11th century - Paris - Leiden

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A special interest attaches to his account of the manufacture of the papyrus (xiii.68 seq.), and of the different kinds of purple dye (ix.130), while his description of the notes of the nightingale is an elaborate example of his occasional felicity of phrase (xxix.81 seq.).

Related Topics:
Papyrus - Purple - Nightingale

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