Editing Natural history (section)

===Before 1900===
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The meaning of the English term "natural history" (a [[calque]] of the [[Latin]] ''historia naturalis'') has narrowed progressively with time, while, by contrast, the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also [[#History|History]] below).

In [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]], "natural history" covered essentially anything connected with [[Nature (philosophy)|nature]], or  used materials drawn from nature, such as [[Pliny the Elder]]'s [[Natural History (Pliny)|encyclopedia of this title]], published {{circa|77 to 79 AD}}, which covers [[astronomy]], [[geography]], humans and their [[technology]], [[medicine]], and [[superstition]], as well as animals and plants.<ref name="Fleischner-2025"/>

[[Middle Ages|Medieval]] European academics considered knowledge to have two main divisions: the [[humanities]] (primarily what is now known as [[classics]]) and [[divinity (academic discipline)|divinity]], with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. The study of nature revived in the [[Renaissance]], and quickly became a third branch of academic knowledge, itself divided into descriptive natural history and  [[natural philosophy]], the analytical study of nature. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern [[physics]] and [[chemistry]], while natural history included the [[biology|biological]] and [[geology|geological]] sciences. The two were strongly associated. During the heyday of the [[gentleman scientist]]s, many people contributed to both fields, and early papers in both were commonly read at professional [[Academy of Sciences|science society]] meetings such as the [[Royal Society]] and the [[French Academy of Sciences]]—both founded during the 17th century.

Natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus' aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden.<ref>{{cite book |last=Koerner |first=Lisbet |author-link=Lisbet Rausing |title=Linnaeus: Nature and Nation |year=1999 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Harvard |isbn=978-0-674-09745-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/linnaeusnaturena00koer_0 }}</ref> Similarly, the [[Industrial Revolution]] prompted the development of geology to help find useful [[mineral]] deposits.<ref>Barry Barnes and Steven Shapin, "Natural order: historical studies of scientific culture", Sage, 1979.</ref>