In Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries

 

Pliny, the Elder, 23-79.

Libros Naturalis Historiae ….

Restituit Venetis: Me nuper Spira Ioannes ..., 1469.

Pliny’s Natural History stands as the first scientific book to be printed and one of the most influential books, scientific or otherwise, ever printed. Pliny‘s ambitious undertaking was to produce an encyclopedia of all the knowledge of the ancient world. He quotes more than 400 authorities and includes material on animals, plants, stones, metals, botany, and geography. This encyclopedia soon became a standard work of reference, with abstracts and abridgments appearing as early as the third century. It became the basis for Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae and such medieval reference works as Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Maius and Balbus' Catholicon. It survived in numerous manuscript copies during the Middle Ages, and was printed in some eighteen editions before 1501. Printed by Johannes da Spira, a goldsmith of Mainz and the first printer in Venice, it is estimated that this edition had a printing of only 100 copies. His nephew movingly recounts the death of Pliny, who sailed to the beach near the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum; he became another victim of that eruption.

The Gift of Samuel I. and Cecile M. Barchas

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