The natural history of Pliny / translated, with copious notes and illustrations by John Bostock and H.T. Riley.

RomansitulaefromConimbriga(Portugal): Compositional and microstructural characterization of anthropomorphic handle attachments

“…This would be consistent with the common recycling practices used in Roman times [2,14,16]. Some recipes for making bronze statues described in the Naturalis Historia refer that aes collectaneum (copper-based scrap) was added to the molten metal [23]. Such practices might also explain the low amounts of Sn observed in some of the anthropomorphic attachments.…”

“…However, these artifacts, representing a female head ornamented with the head of a panther on both sides, show a fine decoration, and are much more elaborated. The Czech attachments might have been produced in the region Campania, in Italy [24], which is considered to be the main center for the production of luxurious bronze vessels for internal consumption and for export during the Roman period [23,25]. In general, the Pb contents of anthropomorphic attachments from Conimbriga are in agreement with the composition of small Roman statuettes, found in France [9], Germany [26] and in the Southern Alps [27], reaching, in some cases, Pb contents of over 30%.…”

The destruction of paper by green copper pigments, demonstrated by a sample of Chinese wallpaper

“…Some of these pigments were used already in the ancient world, such as malachite (Berggrtin), chrysocolla and basic and neutral verdigris [3,4]. New investigatfons have shown that, in addition to these, several other pigments, mostly basic copper salts with complicated compositions, were used [5,6,7] .…”

Urolithiasis through the ages

“…Caius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) was the next person to make reference to calculous disease, and prescribed infusions of peony, mint or chickpea to dissolve renal and vesical calculi. He also advised waters from an island near Sorrento and the waters of Tongress for such patients [12]. Pliny was a naturalist and according to him, his fellow citizens around that time existed without doctors and relied on medicinal herbs.…”