Beschreibung:

HAMILTON, Sir William (1730-1803) Campi Phlegraei. Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies as they have been communicated to the Royal Society of London with Supplement to the Campi Phlegraei, being an account of the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the month of August 1779. Naples: 1776-1779. The Derby copy from Knowsley Hall of the first edition of Hamilton's spectacular colour-plate book on Vesuvius. Hamilton was the 'outstanding scientific authority' of the region (Rudwick) and the Campi Phlegraei is the best known of his four works on volcanic activity; it 'provided a clearer, more precise and useful explanation of volcanic activity than ever published before, which underlined Hamilton's own theories about volcanoes being creative forces and enabled him to answer in one publication the lists of questions about volcanoes and rocks he had been receiving from correspondents all over Europe. Its publication in French and English provided it with a market not only in his own country but throughout Europe as well, and an international audience for a British discovery' (Jenkin and Sloan). The plates are so opaquely coloured that the engraved base beneath is hardly visible: indeed, Hamilton himself describes them as 'executed with such delicacy and perfection, as scarcely to be distinguished from the original drawings themselves' (Part I, p.6). Pietro Fabris was an English artist living in Naples, originally commissioned and trained by Hamilton to sketch the volcanos of southern Italy for Hamilton's own private satisfaction. However, Hamilton was so delighted with the results, and concerned that Fabris, by then 'in a declining state of health' should receive 'a moderate and constant benefit from his labours', that he suggested that Fabris undertake publication of Hamilton's letters to the Royal Society accompanied by plates engraved from Fabris's original drawings. Hamilton was also doubtless not displeased at the prospect of his researches reaching a wider audience. Fabris was the sole distributor of the work, which was originally published at 60 Neapolitan ducats for Part I and Part II: the price of the Supplement is not recorded. Hamilton's observations support his theories on the formation of landmass as a result of volcanic activity, an interest to which he devoted much of his leisure time. Within four years he ascended Vesuvius twenty-two times, sometimes at great risk, since both he and Fabris wished to make sketches at every stage of the eruptions. The figures of Hamilton (wearing a red coat) and occasionally of Fabris appear in the plates. Brunet III, 31 ('Ouvrage curieux et bien exécuté'); ESTC T71231 (parts I-II); Jenkins and Sloan Vases and Volcanoes, 1996, 'Catalogue' 43; Lowndes II, p.989; Rudwick, Bursting the limits of time, 2005, p. 30. 3 parts in 1 volume, folio (436 x 312mm). Letterpress titles and text in English and French. Hand-coloured engraved double-page map and 59 hand coloured-engraved plates after Pietro Fabris the map engraved by Joseph Guerra, the plates edged in black with grey wash margins (a couple of plates with very marginal spots, some of the explanatory text leaves to plates bound in tightly obscuring plate numbers, occasional faint spotting to a few text leaves, slightly heavier to the title-pages). 19th-century English red morocco, the covers panelled in gilt with an outer border composed of fillets and a dotted roll sandwiching a foliate scroll-tool, enclosing a central panel of a stylised foliate roll with cornerpieces of a bird within floral ornament, these latter repeated as centrepieces of spine compartments surrounded by rules and smaller tools, edges and turn-ins decorated with gilt rolls and fillets, gilt edges (extremities lightly rubbed,more heavily to upper joint and headcap). Provenance: Earl of Derby (armorial bookplate on front pastedown and manuscript library classmark on verso of front free endpaper; sold Christie's 20 October 1953, lot 171).