Pliny’s Natural History is an extraordinarily important document in the history of Western science. From antiquity through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, Pliny’s massive compilation of knowledge remained a valued source of practical information on medicine and on the natural world. Pliny’s reputation as a scholar plummeted, however, as his science was overtaken and new mistakes were revealed in his use of his sources.
An encyclopedia (also spelled encyclopaedia or encyclopædia) is a type ofreference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge.
The word encyclopaedia comes from the Koine Greek ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία,[7] from Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία,[8] transliterated enkyklios paideia, meaning "general education": enkyklios (ἐγκύκλιος), meaning "circular, recurrent, required regularly, general"[9] + paideia (παιδεία), meaning "education, rearing of a child".[10] Together, the phrase literally translates as "complete instruction" or "complete knowledge".
Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come.
Pliny the Elder
One of the earliest encyclopedic works to have survived to modern times is the Naturalis Historia ofPliny the Elder, a Roman statesman living in the 1st century AD. He compiled a work of 37 chapters covering natural history, art and architecture, medicine, geography, geology and all aspects of the world around him. He stated in the preface that he had compiled 20,000 facts from 2000 different works by 200 authors, and added many others from his own experience. The work was published circa AD 77-79, although he probably never finished proofing the work before his death in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.[citation needed]
