The Aesthetics and Politics of Volcanoes: William Hamilton’s Campi Phlegraei

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Abstract in Polish, Italian

Nature acts slowly, it is difficult to catch her in the fact.
William Hamilton, Campi Phlegraei (1776)

Wir hatten nun einen Text vor uns,
welchen Jahrtausende zu kommentieren nicht hinreichen.
[We now had a text before us,
which millennia would not suffice to comment on].
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
contemplating Mount Vesuvius,
Italienische Reise (1829)

Anyone who opens the opulent volumes of Campi Phlegraei (1776, 1779) by William Hamilton (1730–1803) encounters a variety of information already on the abundant title page (see Fig. 1). Volcanoes, royal majesties and paintings – these key words are promising. They arouse curiosity. Historically, the texts and details on a title page were characteristically diverse. Today, however, with the distance of almost two and a half centuries, they require an explanation – like much about this unusual book and its extravagant author.

Campi Phlegraei appeared in two volumes in 1776, followed by a supplementary volume in 1779. The title refers to the Phlegraean Fields, a rugged area of high volcanic activity around Naples, which is now known to contain one of the most powerful magma chambers on earth. The fact that Hamilton chose a Latin title is significant in several ways. Latin was still common as a language of science at the time, especially in descriptive natural history. The author, however, wrote the text of his book in English and complemented it with a French translation for a wider international audience. The Latin title, moreover, refers to the most famous volcano text in literary history, the letters of the Roman writer Pliny the Younger, in which he describes the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 of the Common Era (Plinius 2010: 408–417 (annotations: 876), 422–431 (annotations: 876–877)).