The Alicante Provincial Council has received the donation of two volumes on Pompeii, which have already become part of the Library of the Archaeological Museum coinciding with the International Book Day.
As the deputy for Culture explained, Juan de Dios NavarroThese are two specimens from the 18th and 19th centuries that constitute a milestone in the research and dissemination of one of the most important archaeological sites in the world and offer a broad knowledge of the Roman world". The deputy highlighted the exceptional and historical character, as well as the perfect preservation of The cases and monuments of Pompei designed and described from Fausto and Felice Niccolini and Campi phlegræi: observations on the volcanoes of the Two Sicilies as they have been communicated to the Royal Society from William HamiltonThe following are on loan from Jorge Antonio Molina Lamothe, Pablo García de Paredes and Miguel Ángel Lorente Celaya.
The first of these deals with the first archaeological campaigns in Pompeii and Herculaneum carried out under professional criteria. The Niccolini brothers have contributed to the dissemination of the wonders hidden beneath the lava for centuries and the published in instalments in Naples between 1854 and 1896.has more than 400 colour imagesThe museum also includes views, maps and plans of the city and its public buildings, as well as the private residences of Pompeii.
The plates illustrated hundreds of objects with details about each one, including for the first time data about their location. This made the work not only an informative object, but also an important source of information for the general public. reference for Pompeian research. In addition, they show with lively recreations the daily life in the workshops, taverns and shops of the city, in its public squares, temples, theatres and baths.
The donated work is the number 394 of a limited edition of 1499 copies It consists of four hand-bound volumes in cloth with gold-embossed leather spines, each in its own slipcase, and is hand-coded in Arabic numerals.
The second of the works is the result of the work by the British naturalist and ambassador William Hamilton (1730-1803) who used his 36-year stay in Naples as an English ambassador to document and study the eruptions of Vesuvius. His observations are considered to be the first scientific method of explaining volcanism.
The edition is made up of more than 50 colour plates of views of geographical features related to volcanic phenomena and the stony materials ejected by volcanoes. He deals especially with the eruption of 1779, of which he leaves some plates that show the power of the phenomenon. Some of the illustrations show the layer of lapilli and ashes that covered Pompeii. This work, which consists of a single volume in hardback with a gold-engraved leather spine and a bilingual text in English and French, is the facsimile edition of the 1776 edition plus the 1779 supplement.
The archaeological site of Pompeii has been the subject of work and research by MARQ archaeologists and technicians during the excavation campaigns of 2006 and 2007, which the Fundación CV MARQ has made public in the exhibition entitled "Pompeii under Pompeiiwhich was offered in the Museum's temporary galleries in 2007.
