FOUNDATIONS OF VULCANOLOGY

SPALLANZANI, ABBE LAZZARO.

Travels in the Two Sicilies and in some Parts of the Appennines. Translated from the Original Italian. In four Volumes - with eleven Plates. 4 Vols.

London, G.G. and J. Robinson, 1798. 8vo. Bound in 4 contemporary half calf. Gilt title to spine. Ex libris to pasted down front free end-papers (H. Stanton Hill). Somewhat worn, but fine and tight. Rebacked preserving the contemporary spines. Ocassional minor brownspotting, but overall internally fine and clean, printed on good paper. (4), (L), (2), 315 pp. + two plates; (4), 389 pp. + five plates; (iv), 402 pp. + two plates; (iv), 394 pp. + two plates.

First English edition of this highly important work - "Viaggi alle due Sicilie ed in alcune parti dell'Appenino" (1792-97) - on Vulcanology in Italy and Sicily, by the great Italian biologist and physiologist.
Spallanzani was one of the first to reject spontaneous generation with arguments similar to those expressed by Pasteur nearly a century later. In 1788 Spallanzani travelled in the Two Sicilies, mainly in order to correct deficiencies in the vulcanic collection of the Museum of Natural History in Modena. Southern Italy had suffered for five years from intense eruptive and seismic activities. Messina was still in ruins and the countryside devastated. Vesuvius, near Naples, Stromboli and Vucano on the Eolian Isles, and Etna on the Island of Sicily, remained active. Spallanzani visited them all, undauntedly making several perilous ascents that involved great physical endurance. As such he became one of the founders of Vulcanology.

"Spallanzani (1729-1799), the illustrious professor of Pavia, Reggio, and Modena,...devoted his earlier life to animal and vegetable physiology, and was fifty years of age before he began to turn his attention to geological questions. But from that period onward he made many journeys in the basin of the Mediterranean from Constantinople to Marseilles. Of special interest were his minute and picturesque descriptions of the eruptions of Stromboli, which at not a little personal risk he watched from a crevice in the lava. His "Travels in the Two Sicilies and in some Parts of the Appennines" contained a mass of careful observations among the recent and extinct volcanoes of Italy." (Archibald Geikie in "The Founders of Geology" p. 256)

Order-nr.: 43515