Pliny the Edlderʹs Naturalis Historia: a humanistic reading of a classic

Abstract

The present piece of work faces the issue of how to encourage nowadays the reading of the Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder in its original language. It aims to show that the Naturalis Historia, considered by some scholars simply as “the oldest preserved Encyclopedia”, or as a ʺliterary monstrosityʺ, is mainly a classical masterpiece. In order to accomplish that, the so called “via humanistica” and the recovery of the concept of “chrestomathy” will be proposed as useful resources.