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THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BY PLINY THE ELDER 1601 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION

£3,500.00
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[Pliny, the Elder]. The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor in Physicke. London: printed by Adam Islip, 1601.

First English edition. Two volumes bound in one. Leather-bound. Hardcover. Folio in sixes (32 cm x 22 cm). Pp. [50], 614, [index]; 632, [index]. English text. Bound in contemporary full calf. Large woodcut device. Decorative initial letters plus head- and tail-pieces including some figurative. Indexes. Condition: FAIR to GOOD. Binding tight and secure with some rubbing to covers. Lacking first title-page and five other preliminary leaves (one a blank). Lacking all leaves after 'Byturos' in index of second volume (3J6). Some worming and staining. Scarce.

Notes: Rare first English edition. A translation, by Philemon Holland, of: Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia. Volume 2 has separate title-page, pagination and register. Pliny the Elder's renowned Natural History in its first publication in English, translated by Philemon Holland, the greatest translator of the Elizabethan age. The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20.000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy, geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. "We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [.] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [. He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [.] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia" (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. [ESTC S115918].
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