Editing Natural History (Pliny) (section)

===Working method===

His nephew, Pliny the Younger, described the method that Pliny used to write the ''Natural History'':<ref name=letterV>Pliny the Younger. Book 3, Letter V. ''[http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_plinyltrs3.htm To Baebius Macer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201143647/http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_plinyltrs3.htm |date=1 December 2008 }}.'' in "Letters of Pliny the Younger" with introduction by John B. Firth.</ref>

<blockquote>
Does it surprise you that a busy man found time to finish so many volumes, many of which deal with such minute details?... He used to begin to study at night on the [[Volcanalia|Festival of Vulcan]], not for luck but from his love of study, long before dawn; in winter he would commence at the seventh hour... He could sleep at call, and it would come upon him and leave him in the middle of his work. Before daybreak he would go to Vespasian&nbsp;– for he too was a night-worker&nbsp;– and then set about his official duties. On his return home he would again give to study any time that he had free. Often in summer after taking a meal, which with him, as in the old days, was always a simple and light one, he would lie in the sun if he had any time to spare, and a book would be read aloud, from which he would take notes and extracts.</blockquote>

Pliny the Younger told the following anecdote illustrating his uncle's enthusiasm for study:<ref name=letterV/>

<blockquote>
After dinner a book would be read aloud, and he would take notes in a cursory way. I remember that one of his friends, when the reader pronounced a word wrongly, checked him and made him read it again, and my uncle said to him, "Did you not catch the meaning?" When his friend said "yes," he remarked, "Why then did you make him turn back? We have lost more than ten lines through your interruption." So jealous was he of every moment lost.
</blockquote>