Natural History, by Pliny

CAYO PLINIUS SECOND, Pliny the Elder (Comum, c. 23-Estabia, 79),
"Natural History".
Visor Libros, 1999.
Translation by Geronimo de la Huerta and Francisco Hernandez.
Hardcover with cardboard cover.
Exhibits wear consistent with age and use.
Measurements: 32 x 22 x 7.5 cm.

Before dying in the eruption of Vesuvius, Pliny wrote a colossal work that, to our astonishment, is incredibly modern today. His Natural History, in 77 AD, is the first great encyclopedic compilation of antiquity about Nature and the world around us, from the constellations of stars to insects. Pliny the Elder already wrote then that the Earth was round. We know what the various sculptures preserved from those distant days represent because he described them in great detail (otherwise it would be impossible for us). Through its pages we perceive the importance of the figure of Pliny, the scholar, military and scientist who died in the eruption that buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the year 79, and with him, the unsuspected timeliness of a fascinating work on Nature that, as it did two thousand years ago, continues to challenge us on current issues such as the predatory role of man on Earth, the wonders of our planet and the need to safeguard the natural legacy of which we are part.

Pliny the Elder was a Roman writer and military man of the 1st century. He belonged to the equestrian order and held administrative and financial positions in Gaul and Hispania. He made studies and investigations in natural, ethnographic and geographical phenomena compiled in his work Natural History, being an encyclopedic model of much knowledge until the middle of the 17th century when his studies were replaced by investigations based on the scientific method and modern empiricism. His work was used by many western explorers of the 16th and 17th centuries.