Work in Progress Spring 2025 - Imitating Pliny the Elder in Oviedo’s "Sumario"
NB: THIS SESSION WILL BE HELD ONLINE VIA ZOOM.
Eva Falaschi (Humboldt fellow, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen): 'Imitating Pliny the Elder in Oviedo’s Sumario'
In the preface of his Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias (1526), Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés declares that he wants to follow Pliny the Elder as a model for his work. This presentation investigates how this imitation takes place, focusing on the descriptions of pearls, precious stones and gold. It demonstrates that the Naturalis Historia is a standard for organizing information and a reference reading that is manipulated to discuss some central issues in the exploitation of American resources.
Eva Falaschi is Humboldt fellow at the University of Tübingen with a project on wine culture in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia. She was a 2024 Frances Yates Fellow at the Warburg Institute, working on Pliny’s reception in Oviedo’s works. She has extensively published on the reception of Greek art in Greco-Roman Imperial literature and her research was funded by several Institutes in Europe and U.S.A.
The Work in Progress seminar explores the variety of subjects studied and researched at the Warburg Institute. Papers are given by invited international scholars, research fellows studying at the Institute, and third-year PhD students.
ATTENDANCE FREE ONLINE WITH ADVANCE BOOKING
IMAGE: Oviedo, Historia general y natural, Book 6, ch. 8 (Siviglia, Juan de Cromberger 1535, f. 66r). © Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library / Biodiversity Heritage Library | Public Domain.
This page was last updated on 14 March 2025
