INTRODUCTION 



that published by Spira at Venice, 1469, an edition 

 by Beroaldus published at Parma, 1476, and that 

 of Palmarius at Venice, 1499. Commentaries start 

 with Hermolai Barbari Castigatio7ies Plinianae, Romae, 

 1492, 3. 



The text of the present edition is printed from that 

 of Detlefsen, Berlin, 1866 ; it has been checked by 

 the Teubner edition of Ludwig von Jan re-edited 

 by Karl Mayhoffin two volumes, 1905, 1909 (Volume 

 I reissued 1933), which is admirably equipped with 

 textual notes. 



Useful are the commentary by G. Brotier in 

 usum DelpJimi (1826) ; Pliny : Chapters on the 

 Hist. of Art by K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers (1896) 

 aud more receiitly Pliny's Chapters on Chemical 

 Subjects by K. C. Bailey (1929- ); and D. J. 

 Campbeli's commentary on Book II (1936). 



VOLUME I : CONTENTS 



Pliny's Preface. This is in the form of a covering 

 letter from PHny, to accompany the gift of his 

 treatise on Natural History to his friend Vespasian 

 Caesar {i.e. the ruling Emperor Vespasian's son, 

 Titus, his successor as Princeps, who had ah-eady 

 been vested with Imperium and Tribunicia Potestas). 

 The reference to him in § 3 dates the passage : 

 see above, p. viii. The author goes on to say 

 that this dedication places the work outside the 

 class of books intended for the general reader, 

 and invites serious criticism. The subject does not 

 admit of an elevated style — the treatise is a plain 

 record of the facts of Nature, designed for utihty 



