Pliny the Elder : themes and contexts / / edited by Roy K. Gibson, Ruth Morello.

• Superior document: Mnemosyne supplements. Monographs on Greek and Latin language and literature, v. 329
• TeilnehmendeR: Gibson, Roy K.; Morello, Ruth.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. Monographs on Greek and Roman language and literature ; v. 329.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (262 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Pliny's Naturalis Historia – a brilliant and sophisticated encyclopaedia of the scientific, artistic, philosophical, botanical and zoological riches of the ancient world – has had a long career in the footnotes of historical studies. This is a phenomenon born of the sense that the work was there to consult, or to ‘use’, as a resource to aid investigation of specific technical issues or passages, of Quellenforschung, or of delimited topic areas. The contributors to the present volume both represent and join a new generation of critics who have begun to try to ‘read’ this monumental text, and – by examining the dominant motifs which give shape and order to the work – to construct frameworks within which we may understand and interpret Pliny’s overarching agenda.

Table of Contents

Pliny the Elder's attitude to warfare / Rhiannon Ash -- Roman's burden / Andrew Fear -- Luxury and the creation of a good consumer / Eugenia Lao -- Imperialism, mirabilia, and knowledge: some paradoxes in the Naturalis historia / Valerie Naas -- Curious eye of the Elder Pliny / Mary Beagon -- Philosophy and science in the Elder Pliny's Naturalis historia / Ernesto Paparazzo -- Science and aesthetics of names in the Naturalis historia / Aude Doody -- Pliny on Apion / Cynthia Damon -- Pliny and the encyclopaedic addressee / Ruth Morello -- Encylcopaedic exemplarity in Pliny the Elder / Clemence Schultze -- Elder and better: the Naturalis historia and the letters of the younger Pliny / Roy K. Gibson -- Vita Plinii / Michael Reeve.