Pliny the Elder’s Natural History
Google and Wikipedia have now practically replaced the encyclopedias of the world. But the encyclopedias ruled for a long time before then. Pliny the Elder (23 to 79AD) from the Roman period single-handedly wrote what could be considered the first encyclopedia, even though it had a somewhat misleadingly narrow title ‘Natural History’. He purposefully organized it in a fashion that it could be read directly for information on a particular topic without reading it like a book. It had many volumes and it was used and quoted from as an authentic source until the fifteenth century.
Looking closely at the open page of this book in The Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, I am guessing that it is written in Latin. Of course, I am not bothering to read from it. But the sheer thought that I am looking at Pliny the Elder’s Natural History book gives me goosebumps.
