Watching Vesuvius : a history of science and culture in early modern Italy

Mount Vesuvius has been famous ever since its eruption in 79 CE, when it destroyed and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. But less well-known is the role it played in the science and culture of early modern Italy, as Sean Cocco reveals in this ambitious and wide-ranging study. Humanists began to make pilgrimages to Vesuvius during the early Renaissance to experience its beauty and study its history, but a new tradition of observation emerged in 1631 with the first great eruption of the modern period. Seeking to understand the volcano’s place in the larger system of nature, Neapolitans flocked to Vesuvius to examine volcanic phenomena and to collect floral and mineral specimens from the mountainside.In __Watching Vesuvius__, Cocco argues that this investigation and engagement with Vesuvius was paramount to the development of modern volcanology. He then situates the native experience of Vesuvius in a larger intellectual, cultural, and political context and explains how later eighteenth-century representations of Naples—of its climate and character—grew out of this tradition of natural history. Painting a rich and detailed portrait of Vesuvius and those living in its shadow, Cocco returns the historic volcano to its place in a broader European culture of science, travel, and appreciation of the natural world. Mount Vesuvius has been famous ever since its eruption in 79 CE, when it destroyed and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. But less well-known is the role it played in the science and culture of early modern Italy, as Sean Cocco reveals in this ambitious and wide-ranging study. Humanists began to make pilgrimages to Vesuvius during the early Renaissance to experience its beauty and study its history, but a new tradition of observation emerged in 1631 with the first great eruption of the modern period. Seeking to understand the volcano's place in the larger system of nature, Neapolitans flocked to Vesuvius to examine volcanic phenomena and to collect floral and mineral specimens from the mountainside. In Watching Vesuvius, Cocco argues that this investigation and engagement with Vesuvius was paramount to the development of modern volcanology. He then situates the native experience of Vesuvius in a larger intellectual, cultural, and political context and explains how later eighteenth-century representations of Naples - of its climate and character - grew out of this tradition of natural history. Painting a rich and detailed portrait of Vesuvius and those living in its shadow, Cocco returns the historic volcano to its place in a broader European culture of science, travel, and appreciation of the natural world. -- provided by publisher This Work Explores The Question Of Vesuvius As An Object Of Study In The Early Modern Science Of Volcanism From The Investigations And Opinions Of Humanists And Naturalists In The Late Renaissance To The Early 18th-century Philosophizing On Volcanoes And The Development Of Geology Later In The Century. Introduction : Vesuvius In The View South -- Approaches : Humanists, Naturalists, And Vesuvius In The Late Renaissance -- Marvelous Excesses : The Eruption Of 1631 -- Histories Of Ignition : From Historia To Causa -- Contesting Vesuvius : Discordant Meanings In The Context Of Revolt -- On The Face Of This Earth : Vesuvius And Its Kind -- Watching And Philosophizing : From Controversy To Cosmopolitanism -- Formed By Explosion : Geology In The Neapolitan Picturesque -- Conclusion: Returns To The Past. Sean Cocco. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [289]-305) And Index. This book argues that this investigation and engagement with Vesuvius was paramount to the development of modern volcanology. It situates the native experience of Vesuvius in a larger intellectual, cultural, and political context and explains how later eighteenth-century representations of Naples-of its climate and character-grew out of this tradition of natural history