Pliny's Natural History has been traditionally considered as the unoriginal work of an uncritical compiler. This has also been held to be true of the biological books, especially when one compares them with the works of Aristotle, one of Pliny's main authorities in this domain. Aristotle's achievements would be remarkable, especially in the field of classification, of which the philosopher is traditionally celebrated as the scientific father. However, by carefully reading HN XXXII it is possible to find a certain taxonomic awareness---as, for instance, the need for a more accurate nomenclature in order to distinguish some aquatic animals beyond the proliferation of different vernacular terms---which is not to be found in the works of Aristotle. This, in a rather positivist way, may seem to anticipate Renaissance naturalists, but is in fact the consequence of both Pliny's encyclopedic project and contingent ethnobiological, linguistic and social factors.
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Armand Marie Leroi;
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The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science
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Fruyt, Michèle;
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La dénomination des sols et des terres en latin: l'apport du lexique à la connaissance des notions géologiques
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Fögen, Thorsten;
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Zur Rolle des Fachwortschatzes in der Naturalis historia des Älteren Plinius
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Prat, Daniel;
Raynal-Roques, Aline;
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Müller-Wille, Staffan;
Charmantier, Isabelle;
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Natural History and Information Overload: The Case of Linnaeus
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Enenkel, Karl;
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Die antike Vorgeschichte der Verankerung der Naturgeschichte in Politik und Religion: Plinius` Zoologie und der römische Imperialismus
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Doody, Aude;
(2010)
Pliny's Encyclopedia: The Reception of the Natural History
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Doody, Aude;
(2009)
Pliny's Natural History: Enkuklios Paideia and the Ancient Encyclopedia
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Perifano, Alfredo;
(2011)
Préface: Pline à la Renaissance. Transmission, réception et relecture d'un encyclopédiste antique
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Murphy, Trevor;
(2004)
Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the Encyclopedia
(/isis/citation/CBB000741063/)
Thesis
Lao, Eugenia;
(2008)
Restoring the Treasury of Mind: The Practical Knowledge of the “Natural History”
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Pollard, Elizabeth Ann;
(2009)
Pliny's Natural History and the Flavian Templum Pacis: Botanical Imperialism in First-Century C.E. Rome
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Gaillard-Seux, Patricia;
(2012)
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Andrew C. Kitchener;
James G. Sanderson;
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Wardy, Robert;
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Brian W. Ogilvie;
(2018)
Visions of Ancient Natural History
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Selosse, Philippe;
(2008)
Les concepts de genre et d'espèce á travers l'évolution du modèle logique de la définition, de l'Antiquité à Linné
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Lieven, Alexander Fürst von;
Humar, Marcel;
(2008)
A Cladistic Analysis of Aristotle's Animal Groups in the Historia animalium
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Thesis
Cirillo, Thomas McCulloch;
(2012)
Categorizing Difference: Classification, Biology, and Politics in Aristotelian Philosophy
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Furley, David J.;
(2003)
From Aristotle to Augustine
(/isis/citation/CBB000741017/)
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