A Classics prize to Mr Griffin

Peter Griffin was in the HoS writing about the terribly exciting Encyclopaedia of Life, which I blogged about earlier this week.

It is interesting to note it was inspired by Wikipedia, but contributors will be vetted for this project, as one can do when you have tens of million in funding.

But what really impressed me was Griffin’s reference to Pliny the elder. Pliny who died two days after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii, was a superb example of how advanced the ancient Roman society was. He wrote a encyclopaedia series of 37 books on natural history.

His encyclopaedia was treated as authoritative for centuries after he died right through to the middle ages.