ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the principles that shape Historia Naturalis (HN) and the features that differentiate it from other similar texts. It devotes to Elder Pliny as a source of information on collections and collecting in his era, subdivided into the 'museographic' and the collecting discourse parts. The chapter reveals the collecting discourse that underlies HN. It suggests how individuals have worked their way within and through collections and objects to make meaning for themselves. The chapter examines the preceding textual tradition and the collecting model to which it led, the classification and taxonomy employed in Pliny's collection and how it influenced the subsequent generations of collectors. It focuses on the notion of collection as this appears in Pliny. A great compliment that a seventeenth century visitor could bestow on the museum he had just visited was an immediate comparison with Pliny.
