Pliny Natural History, Vol. I (Loeb Latin-English)

the one published by Spira at Venice in 1469, an edition by Beroaldus published at Parma in 1476, and that of Palmarius at Venice in 1499. Commentaries begin with Hermolai Barbari Castigationes Plinianae (The Corrections of Pliny by Ermolao Barbaro), published in Rome, 1492–1493.

The text of the present edition is printed from that of Detlefsen, Berlin, 1866; it has been checked against the Teubner edition of Ludwig von Jan, re-edited by Karl Mayhoff in two volumes, 1905, 1909 (Volume I reissued 1933), which is admirably equipped with textual notes.

Useful works include the commentary by G. Brotier in usum Delphini (for the use of the Dauphin) (1826); Pliny: Chapters on the History of Art by K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers (1896); and, more recently, Pliny's Chapters on Chemical Subjects by K. C. Bailey (1929–); and D. J. Campbell's commentary on Book II (1936).

VOLUME I: CONTENTS

Pliny's Preface. This is in the form of a covering letter from Pliny to accompany the gift of his treatise on Natural History to his friend Vespasian Caesar (that is, the ruling Emperor Vespasian's son, Titus, his successor as Princeps—the first citizen or head of state—who had already been invested with Imperium (legal command) and Tribunicia Potestas (tribunician power)). The reference to him in § 3 dates the passage (see above, p. viii). The author goes on to say that this dedication places the work outside the class of books intended for the general reader and invites serious criticism. The subject does not admit of an elevated style—the treatise is a plain record of the facts of Nature, designed for utility