Pliny Critical Evaluation Specifics: Lapis lazuli (Lapis lazzulo)

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Introduction

Pliny’s Natural History is one of the most classical Roman literatures that aptly depict the ancient knowledge and old scholarship on the nature. In this comprehensive encyclopedia, Pliny the Elder, a Roman Scholar, natural philosopher explores various forms of the natural world, ranging from the living to non-living components of nature, within the context of natural history. This work is to explore and evaluates Pliny’s propositions on lapis lazuli. It commences with a brief description of the authors work on the subject. It then explores the author’s background and the methodology of presenting his work, citing the position of his work on lapis lazuli in the wider contents of the author’s works during his lifetime. The last part of the substantive component evaluate the author’s work, especially in the basis of reviews and interpretation presented by other authorities that either reviews his work or provide more contemporary views on the same topic.

Description: Pliny’s Views on Lapis lazuli

Pliny describes lapis luzuli with various attributes, with emphasis on the beauty it commands and the sacred features associated with the stone. He refers to Lapis luzuli as a beautiful color stone and asserts that it resembles the firmament sprinkled with stars. He describes the stone as being blue in color, of cause with the star-like strewn. He names the lapis luzuli as Sapphire. For its shining nature and unique star-like shape, the Lapis luzuli serves as an epitome of beauty, magnificence and vastness of the sky, making some people to raise it to the level of a deity and have it worshiped. He also asserts the high value that the gemstone commands within the history of civilization, describing it as the most beloved among the civilized and the nobles. At some point, he describes the stone as “Cyanus, of dark blue color, which is sometimes combined with a gold-dust”

Methodological Background

Pliny’s extensive background as a scholar, a philosopher and a naturalist is emphasized in dictionaries, encyclopedia and other reviews of the Pliny’s biography. Top distinguish him from the young Pliny, and he is often referred to as Pliny, the Elder. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Pliny, full name being Gaius Plinius Secundus, was a Roman savant, philosopher and author of the celebrated encyclopedia on nature, Natural History. It further report that he was born in the 23 AD and died on August 24, 79AD. It is acknowledged that the author’s work served as an authority to all scientific controversies and matters until the Middle Ages, when further discoveries were made, posing some challenges to the works contained in Pliny’s work. Pliny, therefore, command’s academic authority ion scientific issues, and is considered among the pioneer scientists and naturalists. Outside his scientific works, he also held political politically sensitive positions in the Roman Empire, by serving as an army commander to the Roman army. It is perhaps, because of his political connectedness that his work survived mutilation, with Natural History being considered as one of the largest works of medieval literatures that survived the destruction of the Roman Empire and remains available to date.

Pliny’s scholarly works were not limited to nature as it is understood today. Rather, his work tended to cover what he considered to be falling within the scope of natural world, or the scope of nature, which some analysts have argued to be more expansive as to capture all ancient knowledge. His analysis of Lapis lazuli, however, falls within the study of nature, as Lapis lazuli is a naturally occurring stone and therefore a product of nature. His ability to link Lapis lazuli with other aspects of nature, and to show its value within his contemporaries is a clear manifestation of his engagement with the topic, and refforts to enable the readers understand the complexity of the stone. He even strives to make Lapis lazuli’s attribute to be outstanding by linking its sparkling colors to starts (product of nature) and gold (also a product of natures).

Discussions

As a reputable scholar of his temporaries, a scientist focusing on nature and an astute researcher, Pliny’s work on natural topics would certainly command significant amount of credibility. High degree of reliability in his work, particularly the Natural History, in which Lapis luzuli is covered is reflected in the overwhelming stability enjoyed by the book for centuries after the book had been published. Among key issues in assessing the credibility of scholarly information is the credibility of the author, and as such where the work is published by an author of repute, such as Pliny’s work on nature, then the author’s work commands significant amount of credibility. The only way to challenge this would be to use an inconsistent finding of another authority, provided the other authority establishes the fact objectively. An alternative approach would be to explore methodological, factual or procedural flaws in the arguments and conclusions drawn.

Lapis has been accompanying people for the whole civilization history and has always been considered a sacred stone. Over a long historical period In the Mediterranean, it had not been made any distinction between Lapis and Sapphire (under the name of which all the blue stones were known). The final separation occurred in the middle of the XVIII century. A lot of geologists consider that in the Bible Pliny the Elder and Theophrastus named Sapphire having in mind Lapis lazuli. In ancient civilizations, it was one of the most beloved and highly valued gems. Excavations of early civilizations demonstrate that Lapis lazuli beads with cornelian were rather common female ornaments of royal personages and nobles.  Russia Lapis lazuli (also known as Lazurite) is called “azure stone.” Beautiful blue color of the gem is due to the presence of sulfide and sulfate ion-radicals. Lapis lazuli, as presented, hardly brings out notable inconsistencies in the author’s presentation and description of the stone. It may be useful to compare this work with the other studies conducted in the recent past, centuries after more advancement in research and technology, to assess further the work.

A number of scholars have attempted to review the works of Pliny’s description of Lapis luzuli. Pliny is given a credit for a succinct description of the stone, especially on its physical attributes, which makes it come out clearly as a blue gemstone. A major source of controversy, however, was Pliny’s choice of word in describing the stone. Hill, for instance, has argued that Pliny’s description of the stone as “Sapphire”) was erroneous, because the dark blue color with gold –dust is not sapphire as known today. Rather, the description refers to the Cyanus. Another weakness pointed out is that the gold-like stars, which is considered to be sprinkles of gold was a wrong judgment, because this stone does not have gold components. Rather, the specs were elements of Sulfur found within the stone. Sulfur like gold, has a yellow color, and for this reason, might have been confused in the description of lapis luzuli. This claim has been supported by research among the mineralogists, which point out that lapis lazuli  has no metallic components in it, and existence of any metal is just incidental.

Conclusion

One of the components of the natural world that he explores in Natural History is lapis lazuli, which he describes as a precious and beautiful stone. However, his discussions on lapis lazuli has attracted significant attention and evaluation among other scholars, some appraising the accuracy of Pliny’s analysis, while others faulting him for a inaccurate technical description of what the rock actually is. This analysis has established a few inaccuracies concerning the chemical composition of the stone. However, Pliny may still earn credit, considering limited advancement in the understanding of elementary composition of minerals during the author’s lifetime.

List of References

Britannica..Pliny the Elder. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/464822/Pliny-the-Elder” www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/464822/Pliny-the-Elder

Lewis, P. R.; Jones, G. D. B. (1970). “Roman gold-mining in north-west Spain.” Journal of Roman Studies,60, 169–85

Pliny, Natural History XXXIII:154–751

Price, M. T. (2007), Decorative stone: the complete sourcebook. Thames & Hudson, London