Introduction: Encyclopedia as artefact Part I: Reading the Natural History 1. The Shape of the Natural History 2. Knowledge as a commodity Part II: The Ethnographies of the Natural History 3. Reading the Ethnographies 4. Triumphal Geography 5. After Rome: the Ends of the World Conclusion: Encyclopedias and Monuments
'Pliny the Elder's Natural History', from first-century Rome, is a guide to the cultural meanings of everyday things in ancient Rome. Concentrating on Pliny's accounts of foreign lands and peoples, monsters, and barbarians, Trevor Murphy demonstrates the political significance of this reference as a monument to the power of Roman imperial society.
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Summary
Introduction: Encyclopedia as artefact Part I: Reading the Natural History 1. The Shape of the Natural History 2. Knowledge as a commodity Part II: The Ethnographies of the Natural History 3. Reading the Ethnographies 4. Triumphal Geography 5. After Rome: the Ends of the World Conclusion: Encyclopedias and Monuments
'Pliny the Elder's Natural History', from first-century Rome, is a guide to the cultural meanings of everyday things in ancient Rome. Concentrating on Pliny's accounts of foreign lands and peoples, monsters, and barbarians, Trevor Murphy demonstrates the political significance of this reference as a monument to the power of Roman imperial society.
Description
The most important surviving encyclopedia from the ancient world, Pliny the Elder's Natural History is unparalleled as a guide to the cultural meanings of everyday things in first-century Rome. As part of a new direction in classical scholarship, Trevor Murphy reads the work not just for the information it contains, but to understand how and why Pliny collects and presents information as he does. Concentrating on the geographic and ethnographic informationin Pliny, Murphy demonstrates the work's political importance. The selection and arrangement of the encyclopedia's material show that it is more than an instrument of reference: it is a monument to the powerof Roman imperial society.
Critic Reviews
“"Murphy takes a provocative new approach as he concentrates on ethnography and geography in Pliny. Murphy argues persuasively that reference works are a kind of institutional knowledge, and that military, political, and commercial power of Rome provided subject matter for Pliny.... Highly recommended."--Choice”
Murphy takes a provocative new approach as he concentrates on ethnography and geography in Pliny. Murphy argues persuasively that reference works are a kind of institutional knowledge, and that military, political, and commercial power of Rome provided subject matter for Pliny.... Highly recommended. Choice
About the Author
Trevor Murphy is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley.
The most important surviving encyclopedia from the ancient world, Pliny the Elder's Natural History is unparalleled as a guide to the cultural meanings of everyday things in first-century Rome. As part of a new direction in classical scholarship, Trevor Murphy reads the work not just for the information it contains, but to understand how and why Pliny collects and presents information as he does. Concentrating on the geographic and ethnographic information in Pliny, Murphy demonstrates the work's political importance. The selection and arrangement of the encyclopedia's material show that it is more than an instrument of reference: it is a monument to the power of Roman imperial society.
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