Natural History

Pliny's encyclopedic work on the natural world, covering cosmology, geography, zoology, botany, and mineralogy.

Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)

• Verse 14: Let There Be Lights in the Firmament — Cited (Book II, ch. 6) among those who deny stars are luminous of themselves

  "Albert, Avicenna, Bede, and Pliny (book II, ch. 6) deny this"

• Verse 20: Let the Waters Bring Forth — Cited (Book X, ch. 10) on men learning navigation from the kite

  "so that men seem to have learned the art of navigation from them, and especially from the kite, says Pliny, Book X, chapter 10."

• Verse 20: Let the Waters Bring Forth — Cited alongside Plutarch and Aldrovandus on the remora stopping ships

  "Pliny, Plutarch, and Aldrovandus likewise report the same about the remora"

• Verse 9: Let the waters be gathered together — Cited on Sesostris deterred from digging a canal from the Red Sea

  "Pliny records that Sesostris, king of Egypt, first conceived of digging a navigable channel from the Red Sea"