Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder (born in 23 AD – died in 79 AD near Pompeii, at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius). He was a Roman writer and naturalist, author of a monumental encyclopaedia entitled Natural History, around 77AD, composed of thirty-seven books. The only work in his hand to have survived, it compiled the knowledge of his time on subjects as varied as the natural sciences, astronomy, anthropology, psychology and metallurgy.