Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder
“Natural History” consisted of 37 books, written in Latin, and covering a wide range of topics:
- Astronomy and Meteorology
- Geography (four books broken down by regions of the known Old World)
- Anthropology and Human Physiology
- Zoology (four books broken down by type of animal: Land, marine, birds, etc.)
- Botany (eight books broken down by type of plant: Exotic, aquatic, vines, trees, etc.)
- Agriculture and Garden Plants (three books)
- Medicinal properties of various plants and herbs (five books)
- Medicinal properties of human and animal products and magic (three books)
- Medicinal properties of marine products (such as salts, sponges, and marine plants)
- Medicinal properties of marine animals
- Metals (two books)
- Earth (pigments, paints, sulfer, etc.)
- Stone (two books)
Book One, Chapter One begins as follows:
The world, and whatever that be which we otherwise call the heavens, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a Deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created, nor subject, at any time, to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of man, nor can the human mind form any conjecture respecting it. It is sacred, eternal, and without bounds, all in all; indeed including everything in itself; finite, yet like what is infinite; the most certain of all things, yet like what is uncertain, externally and internally embracing all things in itself; it is the work of nature, and itself constitutes nature.
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) was born in 23 CE and died at age 56 in 79 AD. He was, in addition to being an author and the world’s first known encyclopedist, a historian, a philosopher, and a naval and army commander of the Roman Empire. He died during a naval battle.