"A Historie of the World" or "The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus"

"A Historie of the World" or "The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus"

The book and text of one of the volumes

“The Historie of the World” or more commonly called “The naturall historie of C. Plinius Secundus” was the encyclopedia of its day, chronicling everything from why purple was considered a royal color, to various folklore of the time. This focus on folk stories is extremely important to the simultaneous focus on the “other” – something that was considered foreign or strange – and “Othello”. Many contemporaries in Shakespeare’s time considered “Othello” to either be a piece of folklore itself, or be based off of one of the stories, thus discounting it as an influential literary piece. They could not, however, discount its importance and prevalence as it continues to impact audiences today just as it did when it was originally staged. Written by Pliny the Elder in 1601, this collection of information was written in several large volumes and is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s sources as he wrote his plays. This adds to the element of mysticism, magic, and strangeness in Shakespeare’s famous Moor of Venice, as much of this book is also focused on concepts that were foreign, unknown, and mystical in origin. Considered a “natural” history because of its focus on unknown scientific phenomena, Pliny employed a variety of different logical solutions to what were considered the unanswerable questions of the day – with most of these technical answers being largely discounted in today’s society. These absurd reasonings once again highlight the duality of the foreign during that time period: it was something to be studied, an art which captivated many people of the time, while also managing to strike fear into the very same people, who simply couldn’t process anything different from their own way of life.

Pliny, the Elder

The Historie of the World Volumes

Adam Islip

1601

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With permission from the Rose Library

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book

English

still image

QH41 .P55 FOLIO

A major a time in exploration