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The Natural History (Latin: Naturalis historia) is an early encyclopedia published circa A.D. 77–79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover all ancient knowledge. It was very popular among the humanists in the 15th century, and circulated not only in manuscript form but also in printed editions.
This incunable (incunable or incunabulum: a book that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe) was printed in Venice in 1469 by Johann of Speyer, a printer from the German Palatinate. The decoration, which is of exceptionally high quality, is attributed to Giovanni Vendramin, one of the most important Paduan illuminators, who was active between 1466 and 1509.
The copy in Ravenna is decorated with initials of the type known as "littera mantiniana" named after Mantegna, which was invented in Padua in the 1450s. In this type of initial the letters are painted to appear three-dimensional. The initial "M" on folio 19 of volume I is a typical example.
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