Natural History, Volume IX: Books 33–35

Loeb Classical Library edition of Natural History

by Pliny the Elder, Harris Rackham (Translator)

Pliny the Elder, tireless researcher and writer, is author of the encyclopedic "Natural History," in 37 books, an unrivaled compendium of Roman knowledge.

The contents of the books are as follows. Book 1: table of contents of the others and of authorities; 2: mathematical and metrological survey of the universe; 3-6: geography and ethnography of the known world; 7: anthropology and the physiology of man; 8-11: zoology; 12-19: botany, agriculture, and horticulture; 20-27: plant products as used in medicine; 28-32: medical zoology; 33-37: minerals (and medicine), the fine arts, and gemstones.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Natural History is in ten volumes.

Genres: Classics, History

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. Spending most of his spare time studying, writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, he wrote an encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all such works written subsequently. Pliny the Younger, his nephew, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus:

"For my part I deem those blessed to whom, by favour of the gods, it has been granted either to do what is worth writing of, or to write what is worth reading; above measure blessed those on whom both gifts have been conferred. In the latter number will be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions."

Pliny the Younger is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncle's now missing work on the History of the German Wars. Pliny the Elder died on August 25, 79 AD, while attempting the rescue by ship of a friend and his family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that had just destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The prevailing wind would not allow his ship to leave the shore. His companions attributed his collapse and death to toxic fumes; but they were unaffected by the fumes, suggesting natural causes.

Reviews

[george · Rating 3 out of 5]

actually only read two of the three volumes but i know the first one is about gold rings bc kat accidentally read it when we didn’t have to. SO this is technically a review for the books XXXIV and XXXV because that’s what i had to read for my classical antiquities course.

i’m really not a fan of pliny listing lots of artists and sort of doing a speedrun of their works. it’s like a more concise vasari but vasari i find more entertaining (apparently the loeb translation is horrible to read so maybe that’s why) and with pliny it’s sort of worse because i don’t have much concept on what the works would have looked like. i am a fan however of his documentation of the art and sone of the anecdotes he tells, especially the one about nero covering a statue in gold for the sake of ur and the whole alexander the great appelles saga. i also like his random listing of all the practical uses of every artistic material, although i guess the later books are also about minerals and medicine i just think it’s such an interesting way to structure a book we would never see today. resourcefulness! although it was incredibly boring at times.

i particularly liked one thing pliny said in XXXV where he said that “nobody’s likeness lives and they leave behind portraits that represented their money, not themselves”. it’s also interesting to see how even in the roman times there was a huge love for green culture, pliny speaks highly of it a lot especially in regards to painting. i also see where vasari gets his motion of artistic genius from. i see quite a lot of similarities between the way that they write about artists in a way that lists their works and tells random stories about the artist. i guess vasari must have been a fan.

although boring quite a lot of the time i must say it was VERY cool to read it IN OXFORD and making my handwritten notes in my notebook i have felt incredibly studious and like i almost do a real degree.

[Robyn Lowrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The next Author on my list from Thomas More’s personal library in Utopia is Pliny Natural History Volume IX, Books XXXIII, XXXIV, and XXXV. This is a dual translation of Latin/English. Although I have recently seen Pliny referenced in the historical accounts by Herodotus, this was my first time reading Pliny’s Encyclopedia of Knowledge, which contains:

Astronomy and Meteorology [Vol 2]; Geography and Ethnography [Vols 3-6]; Anthropology and Physiology [Vol 7]; Zoology [Vols 8-11]; Botany [Vols 12-27]; Pharmacology, magic, water, and aquatic life [Vols 28-32]; Mineralogy [Vols 33-37](this is the edition I read).
The Natural History is the most extensive single compilation of work from ancient writers to have survived from the Roman Empire. Pliny published the first ten volumes in AD 77 but was still revising the final version after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Pliny had such a love of nature that he had gone to investigate the strange cloud rising from the mountain, which was “shaped like an umbrella pine”. This, unfortunately led to his death from the volcanic fumes. The final works were published posthumously by Pliny’s nephew, Pliny the Younger.

“My subject is the world of nature … or in other words, life.”

As Art is one of my greatest passions, I enjoyed reading the section in Book XXXV on the origin of Art and colours. I was not expecting this little treasure! According to Pliny, the Egyptians declare that they invented Art six thousand years before the Greeks took claim. The theory began with tracing an outline round a man’s shadow and painting it in a single colour and called this monochrome, a method still used today (271).

Line drawing was invented by the Egyptian Philocles and the Corinthians were the first to use pigments from powdered earthenware to fill in the interior of the drawings. Foreign paintings became fashionable in Rome after King Attalus bought a painting of Dionysus and placed it in the Forum. Caesar also gave importance to paintings by dedicating the works of Ajax and Medea in front of Venus Genetrix.

A nice anecdote can be found in XXXII. Emperor Nero had ordered his portrait to be painted in the Gardens of Maius, on a colossal scale, on linen 120 ft high, a thing “unknown hitherto”. When the portrait was finished, it was struck by lightning and destroyed by fire. Soon after, portraitures of gladiators became the highest interest among artists.

The section on the origin of colours fascinated me as I use some of these acrylic colors today in my painting. Art differentiated itself by adding light and shade, the contrast of colours; some are sombre, some are brilliant such as cinnabar, Armenium, gold-solder, indigo, and bright purple. Many natural colours from this time are sinopis, ruddle, Paraetonium, Melinum, Eretrian earth and orpiment. The artificial colours are: yellow ochre, burnt lead acetate, realgar, sandyx, Syrian colour, and black (283).

More details on the natural colours which were also used for medicinal purposes:

Sinopis: a brown-red ochre from Sinope, was produced in Egypt and Africa and was also used as a liniment around the eyes and for kidney troubles, and as a remedy for poisons and snake bites.
Burnt ceruse: a yellow-ochre used to paint ships and for representing shadows in painting
Melinum: a white colour from the island of Melos, which is used as a depilatory effect by drying the tongue on contact. Good for plasters. Another white, which comes from cretaceous earth is used for polishing silver.
Eretrian: used as a desiccative for headaches and internal “suppurations”
Vermillion: a mixture of red ochre and ceruse; Virgil held that this came from sandyx, which is a plant which “shall clothe the pasturing lambs”(291).
Black pigment comes from two sources in the Earth—from the brine in salt pits and the charred remains from graves. It can be produced by burning resin or pitch. Athenian painters derived it from the skin of grapes and burning ivory.
Purple: Royalty! The most highly praised purple comes from Tyre or Gaetulia in which hysginum is mixed with pigeon droppings or the scum of reeds (295).
Armenia: a dark blue which gives nourishment to the hair, named after Armenian.
Appian: a green that counterfeits malachite. Made from a green earth and gives brilliance to the complexions of women in paintings.
Following the deep-dive into colours used by artists of that time, Pliny gives a comprehensive list of those who contributed much to painting. I have highlighted a few here:

Parrhasius of Ephesus was the first to give proportions to painting and vivacity to the expressions (he references the Art of Painting by Antigonus and Xenocrates)
Timanthes whose works are “more implied than depicted, whose execution is always surpassed by genius”(317). A very high compliment indeed!
Apelles of Cos who surpassed all the painters that preceded and all who were to come after him. He published volumes on the principles of painting and could not find a painting that compared to the “glamour that his work possessed”. This is a quality noted by the Greeks as charis.
Apelles, who was commissioned by Alexander the Great by edict to paint his portrait—no other artist had this privilege.
Women artists: I like that Pliny included these in his list—Timarete who painted Artemis at Ephesus; Irene, and Aristaret.
As I finished reading Pliny’s Natural History Book XIV, I was saddened to think that he would perish soon after this from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius at age 56. Even though this was considered “old” in the First Century, he still had much more to contribute to the world. Thank you Thomas More for introducing me to Pliny!

Work Cited

H. Rackham. Pliny Natural History. Harvard University Press: London William Heinemann Ltd, 1952.

[Denmicke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Det blir till slut en ganska enformig uppräkning av mineraler, ädelstenar, målarkonstnärer och bildhuggare.

[John Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this best of the Pliny so far because of all the historical references.