A Look Inside

The cover image, with the typical seal. This illustration is very complex upon closer examination.  The four corners contain the four areas of life on earth: land, sea, and sky, as well as the kingdom of plants.  In the center looks to be a tiny profile of Plinius Secundus himself.

In real encyclopedic fashion, Plinius includes 37 books in his Historie.  Books 1-6 cover the earth itself, from the elements of the ground to the movement of the heavens.  7-11 covers the creatures of the earth, from man to insects.  12-25 covers an extensive look at plants, from basic categorization to agriculture and medicinal uses.  26-32 includes medicine-heavy observations and how many elements of the previous chapters can contribute to health.  33-37 cover metallurgy and geology and the uses of such stones as mentioned.

I found it interesting that to start the grand classification of land animals, Pliny starts with the elephant.  This behemoth was considered a natural wonder of the word,  so it does seem like a sensible choice.

There is no way to know if Pliny ever truly observed dragons as modern imagination dictates.  If this record (which is not singular, as there are other mythical creatures described as real in various science texts) tell us anything, it is that the early naturalists, especially from the first centuries, had very different ways of describing the world.  They relied more heavily on the ideas from myth and legend in their own communication.