Natural History (Pliny) - Table of Contents

Table of Contents

The Natural History consists of 37 books. Pliny devised his own table of contents. The table below is a summary based on modern names for topics.

Volume Books Contents
I 1 Preface and tables of contents, lists of authorities
2 Mathematical and physical description of the world
II 3 - 6 Geography and ethnography
7 Anthropology and human physiology
III 8 - 11 Zoology
IV - VII 12 - 27 Botany, including agriculture, horticulture and pharmacology
VIII 28 - 32 Pharmacology
IX - X 33 - 37 Mining and mineralogy, especially in its application to life and art, including:
gold
casting in silver
statuary in bronze
painting
modelling
sculpture in marble
precious stones and gems

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