DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61387#0042
18
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
appear in Italian authors. Nicolo Perotto mentions Pompeii, Herculaneum,
and Stabias in his “ Cornucopia,” published in 1488; the “ Herculaneum
Oppidum” is indicated in the map of Ambrogio Leone, 1513, as the site
occupied by Portici; Leandro Alberti, in his “ Descrizione di tutta 1’Italia”
(1561), recalls the burying of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae by the
eruption of Vesuvius, and indicates the spots where they were then believed
to have existed. A chapter in the “ Historia Neapolitana” of Giulio Cesare
Capaccio, published in 1607, is devoted to the antiquities of Herculaneum.
Camillo Peregrino, in speaking of the same city in his “ Apparato alle anti-
chita di Capua” (1651), thinks that it occupied the site of the present Torre
del Greco; and the same idea is adopted by Francesco Baldano in his work
entitled “ L’antico Ercolano ovvero la Torre del Greco tolta dall’ oblio,”
published in 1688.* Nay, the celebrated architect, Dominico Fontana, being
employed in the year 1592 in constructing the subterranean canal, which
still exists, for conveying the waters of the Sarno to Torre del Greco,
actually conducted it under the site of Pompeii, and often found his work
obstructed by the foundations of the buildings; yet no curiosity was excited
to explore the vast remains which evidently existed there.
It is singular enough that, while so many palpable indications existed of
the remains of Pompeii, Herculaneum, a city buried to a depth of eighty or
a hundred feefi under a hard mass of lava and other accumulations of
volcanic matter, the deposits of many eruptions of Vesuvius, should have
been the first to be discovered, and that by a mere accident.
In 1684, a baker residing at Portici sunk a well on his premises, which,
after penetrating through some ancient ruins, terminated, at a depth of ninety
feet, near the stage of the theatre of Herculaneum. A few years after,
Prince Emmanuel d’Elboeuf, of the house of Lorraine, having been sent to
Naples at the head of an imperial army, espoused there a daughter of the
Prince of Salsa, and purchased the ground containing the well, in order to
erect a palace. About the year 1713, having occasion to enlarge the well,
he found some marbles, with which he adorned his stair-cases and terraces,
as well as some female statues; the latter, however, were claimed by the
imperial government, and the prince was compelled to send them to Vienna.
They are now in the palace of the King of Saxony, at Dresden. In the
process of further excavations, the duke is said to have discovered a round
temple having forty-eight alabaster columns. But for some reason or another
* See Breton, “ Pompeia,” p. 20.
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
appear in Italian authors. Nicolo Perotto mentions Pompeii, Herculaneum,
and Stabias in his “ Cornucopia,” published in 1488; the “ Herculaneum
Oppidum” is indicated in the map of Ambrogio Leone, 1513, as the site
occupied by Portici; Leandro Alberti, in his “ Descrizione di tutta 1’Italia”
(1561), recalls the burying of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae by the
eruption of Vesuvius, and indicates the spots where they were then believed
to have existed. A chapter in the “ Historia Neapolitana” of Giulio Cesare
Capaccio, published in 1607, is devoted to the antiquities of Herculaneum.
Camillo Peregrino, in speaking of the same city in his “ Apparato alle anti-
chita di Capua” (1651), thinks that it occupied the site of the present Torre
del Greco; and the same idea is adopted by Francesco Baldano in his work
entitled “ L’antico Ercolano ovvero la Torre del Greco tolta dall’ oblio,”
published in 1688.* Nay, the celebrated architect, Dominico Fontana, being
employed in the year 1592 in constructing the subterranean canal, which
still exists, for conveying the waters of the Sarno to Torre del Greco,
actually conducted it under the site of Pompeii, and often found his work
obstructed by the foundations of the buildings; yet no curiosity was excited
to explore the vast remains which evidently existed there.
It is singular enough that, while so many palpable indications existed of
the remains of Pompeii, Herculaneum, a city buried to a depth of eighty or
a hundred feefi under a hard mass of lava and other accumulations of
volcanic matter, the deposits of many eruptions of Vesuvius, should have
been the first to be discovered, and that by a mere accident.
In 1684, a baker residing at Portici sunk a well on his premises, which,
after penetrating through some ancient ruins, terminated, at a depth of ninety
feet, near the stage of the theatre of Herculaneum. A few years after,
Prince Emmanuel d’Elboeuf, of the house of Lorraine, having been sent to
Naples at the head of an imperial army, espoused there a daughter of the
Prince of Salsa, and purchased the ground containing the well, in order to
erect a palace. About the year 1713, having occasion to enlarge the well,
he found some marbles, with which he adorned his stair-cases and terraces,
as well as some female statues; the latter, however, were claimed by the
imperial government, and the prince was compelled to send them to Vienna.
They are now in the palace of the King of Saxony, at Dresden. In the
process of further excavations, the duke is said to have discovered a round
temple having forty-eight alabaster columns. But for some reason or another
* See Breton, “ Pompeia,” p. 20.