On Friday 1st November  open the multimedia exhibition of the Alessandro Volta Foundation, entitled “I volti di Plinio. Natura est vita” (The Pliny’s faces. Nature is life) and curated by Accademia Pliniana, will take place at the Palazzo del Broletto in Como: from 1st to 10th November, visitors will be guided through an immersive journey to explore the deep identity of Pliny the Elder and the timeless influence of his literary work, which comes from ancient Rome with universal echo to the present day.

Gaius Plinius Secundus, now better known as Pliny the Elder, was born in Como in AD 23 or AD 24. He was a man of arms and letters who, in his encyclopaedic Naturalis Historia, gathered the bases of knowledge in a humanistic-scientific synthesis, in accordance with the principle of utilitas iuvandi, that is going towards the human needs through the dissemination of culture. Passionate and tireless scholar, high imperial official and admiral, Pliny travelled for years throughout almost all of Roman Europe, leaving valuable descriptions of it for future historiographical and anthropological studies. His figure is crucial in the process of European cultural development, both as first art historian and as witness and skilled narrator of the Classical Age. His far-reaching intelligence had a considerable influence on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and the study of his works has been, and still continues to be, indispensable in many areas of knowledge.

“I volti di Plinio. Natura est vita” (The Pliny’s faces. Nature is life) is an exhibition that investigates, through an unprecedented multimedia journey, the surprising sides of a person that has been fundamental for the cultural and scientific formation of the contemporary world. The main themes covered by the monumental Naturalis Historia, as well as the reconstruction of Pliny’s biography, will be offered to the public from an innovative point of view, without violating the maximum scientific rigour.

Visitors will have the extraordinary opportunity to observe what some believe to be the remains of the heroic admiral’s skull. Thanks to an operation of coordination between the Museo Storico dell’Arte Sanitaria in Rome (Historical Museum of Sanitary Art) and the Alessandro Volta Foundation, the controversial and evocative find – discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century near the Ancient Port of Pompeii - will be transported to Como for the occasion. The exhibition aims to present an engaging interactive journey that explores the deep identity of Pliny the Elder, and the timeless influence of his literary work.

For the mortal, the Divine is to help the other mortal, and this is precisely how Pliny the Elder died: while coordinating rescue operations during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The exhibition will also offer an immersive virtual historical reconstruction of the eruption of the Vesuvius, provided exclusively by the MAV [(Museo Archeologico Virtuale) Virtual Archaeological Museum] of Herculaneum, which will be surrounded by evocative wall projections that reconstruct some sides of the many Pliny’s faces.
The exhibition also includes an installation with Pliny's iconographies designed and created by the photographer Margot Errante, who collaborated with Accademia Pliniana.

The project aims to start in Como the path to celebrate the two thousandth anniversary of the Pliny’s birth  (2023/2024), just when the Pantheon compiled by MIT of Boston claims that Pliny the Elder and his nephew are the two personalities from Como that most influenced the culture of humanity and still the most translated and searched on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the last descendant of the Naturalis historia pliniana.

“I volti di Plinio. Natura est vita” (The Pliny’s faces. Nature is life) shows the creative synergy between archaeology, art and science, offering the public a dialogue of meanings, not only as knowledge but also as our perception and relationship with today's and ancient world.


The exhibition is an initiative of the Alessandro Volta Foundation, organized with the collaboration of the Municipality of Como, and curated by Accademia Pliniana.