1516 A page detail from Francois Regnault's early printing of Pliny the Elder's \Natural History\". Pliny's Natural History (written up to AD 77) was the first encyclopaedia and remained the major source of knowledge throughout the middle ages, and was one of the first books to be printed. Here a Renaissance scholar has added marginal annotation, in a fine hand, while trying to come to terms with amphisbaenids (tail-head mimics), crowned serpents and snake eating birds. Pliny died while approaching the eruption of Vesuvius (explosive 'Plinian' eruptions are named for him). The move away from \"received wisdoms\" - from Aristotle and from Pliny - towards original observations by scientists such as Galileo, Descartes, Bacon and Boyle marked the start of the Modern Scientific Method. Book in Paul D. Stewart collection."