Machine generated contents note: 1. Pliny the Elder and his place in antique and mediaeval writings on architecture; 2. Initial explorations: Petrarch, the Mirabilia Urbis Romae and Flavio Biondo; 3. The manuscript hunter and the librarian: Poggio Bracciolini and Giovanni Tortelli; 4. A new system: Pomponio Leto and his school; 5. Emerging doubts; 6. Pliny and Leon Battista Alberti: two 'architectural histories'; 7. Pliny, Filarete and the ideal patron of architecture; 8. 'Aldus and his dream book': the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili; 9. A more down-to-earth Pliny; 10. Mixing the traditions: the curious case of Cesare Cesariano; 11. Developments in the Veneto: the Vitruvian commentaries of Daniele Barbaro and I quattro libri by Andrea Palladio; 12. Standing before the marvels: Ciriaco d'Ancona and Pliny's 'Opera mirabilia in terris'; 13. In the mind's eye: drawings of Plinian wonders, from Leonardo to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; 14. From paper to stone: rebuilding Pliny's architectural marvels; Final thoughts: Pliny's influence on the Renaissance understanding of ancient architecture.