ABSTRACT
In his outline of the cosmology in Book 2 of the Natural History Pliny took as his point of departure the four elements, but in the rest of the work he follows another classification: The animal world, the plant world, and the mineral world. The Natural History adheres to the following outline:
Book 1: The epistula praefatoria, the indices and a list of authors.
Book 2: Cosmology.
Books 3-6: Geography (loci) — commencing in the west and going in an easterly direction.
Book 7: Anthropology.
Books 8-11: Zoology (animalia), winch is divided according to the elements: earth, water and air. We begin with the largest, elephants, whales and eagles. The section dealing with the animals of the air is concluded with a discussion of insects, and here the most useful animal, the bee, is dealt with first.
Books 12-19: A botanical handbook that first and foremost deals with trees (arbores) that are divided into "foreign" trees, fruit trees, forest trees, sown (cultivated) trees. Books 18 and 19 deal with crops, more specifically with agriculture and horticulture.
Books 20-28: Medicinal uses of botanical substances (medicina).
Books 28—32: Medicinal uses of animal substances (medicina).
Books 33—37: Mineralogy and metallurgy (metalla) including medicinal and artistic uses of minerals and metals. Gold and silver are the subjects of Book 33. Copper, iron and lead are dealt with in Book 34. The art of painting is the subject of Book 35. Kinds of stones are the contents of 36. The Naturalis Historia is concluded with a section on gemmology (gemmae) in Book 37.
