Campi Phlegræi: Observations on the volcanos of the two Sicilies as they have been communicated to the Royal Society of London
Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803, British)
Campi Phlegræi: Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies as They Have Been
Communicated to the Royal Society of London, Naples: [s.n.], 1776
Gift of Emily Fox Cheston (Class of 1908)
Mount Vesuvius has been built up by a series of lava flows over the last 25,000 years, including a number of explosive eruptions, the most famous of which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79CE, killing thousands of people. An earlier eruption, circa 1600 BCE covered several Bronze Age villages, although most of the inhabitants seem to have fled. The great fertility of the area ensured that human habitation was re-established after every disaster. The antiquarian and amateur geologist, Sir William Hamilton went to Naples in 1764 as the British envoy, a post he desired so he could be near the excavations recently begun at Pompeii. Vesuvius had entered a period of activity shortly before Hamilton’s arrival, and his letters describing the phenomena were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, and in this work, which also includes hand-painted engravings based on the sketches of Anglo-Italian artist Pietro Fabris.
