Book summary

Pliny's wonderful compendium of facts and fallacies, covering such subjects as beekeeping, toothache remedies (vinegar and boiled frogs), the music of the spheres, and gluemaking.

Media reviews

"'Natural History' was the medieval equivalent of a runaway best-seller...No subject was too large and no detail too small. He synthesized much of what was known in first-century Rome about astronomy, meteorology, geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, pharmacology and the arts of sculpting and painting...['Natural History'] offers a great deal of very strange reading...But even Pliny's dullest pages of reportage are brightened by startling insights and bizarre observations...Much of 'Natural History' reads like an ancient version of 'The Farmer's Almanac', offering answers to problems people encountered in their daily lives, especially in garden, orchard and barnyard. Pliny's discourses on raising bees, cultivating grape vines, harvesting figs, preserving fruits...are as specific and accurate as those found in modern guides..."