Guide to an Exhibition of 
THE oldest popular natural history book, and almost ency- 
No. 5. clopaedia, was the Historia Naturalis^ also termed the 
Historia Mundl^ of Pliny the elder [a.d. 23-79]. This 
voluminous treatise in thirty-seven books has been preserved, 
and presents an epitome of the state of Roman knowledge on 
the subject. The number of known Plants had by this time 
increased to about one thousand, and the belief in the existence 
of sexes in Plants had become established; while in the 
Minerals the “ Earths ” had been made into a class apart from 
Metals ” and “ Stones.” It was probably the earliest work on 
Natural History to be printed, the editio princeps emanating 
from J. de Spira’s press at Venice in 1469. 
THE next most important work was the celebrated Materia 
Medka of Dioscorides [a.d. 40 ?- ]. This was a standard 
book for over a century and was the basis for most of the early 
Herbals. 
It was first printed at Medemblik, Holland, in 1478, from 
a Latin translation, made by Hermolaus Barbarus. The Greek 
editio princeps, from the press of Aldus Manutius, at Venice, 
appeared in 1499. The work became the subject of much 
discussion, and of many Commentaries by early Botanists of the 
Renaissance, especially P. A. Mattioli [1500-1577] and his 
contemporaries, who, ignorant of the differences between the 
floras of east and west Europe, were led into endless difficulties 
in their attempts to identify their plants from the imperfect 
definitions of Dioscorides. 
THE three Greek writers, Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and 
Dioscorides, are the authorities for all the Greek names of 
Plants up to the Christian Era. 
W ITH the epoch of Pliny and Dioscorides the classical 
period of Natural History may be said to have been 
brought to a close : the works of the older writers became less 
studied in Europe, and commonplace-books like those of jElian 
of Praeneste, a compiler who lived in the third century, were 
much used. In these, scraps of folk-lore, travellers’ tales and 
fragments of misapprehended science were set forth in the 
elegant style then affected. An edition of Ilian’s collected 
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