1.03 Bove 1632
Vincenzo Bove, Il Vesuvio acceso, Naples 1632
Be 4015-2322 raro II
Il Vesuvio acceso by the publisher and bookseller Vincenzo Bove, active in Naples between 1605 and 1654, belongs to the genre of printed notices formerly the main means by which news was transmitted during the modern age throughout Europe. As attested by the dedication of January 17, 1632 to Juan Bautista Valenzuela Velázquez (1574-1645), first regent of the Collateral Council, the edition was printed about a month after the eruption of Vesuvius which began the night of December 16, 1631. The text opens with the narrative of the disastrous event presented in the form of a diary, in which are retraced the events that occurred in Naples and in the territories on the slopes of the volcano from the beginning of the eruption until January 10, 1632. Within this narrative, the chronicler dwells in particular on the force and the spectacularity of the natural phenomena unleashed by the activity of Vesuvius and on the reactions of fear and pity of the stricken community. The text then closes with a review of all the Vesuvian eruptions that occurred in preceding centuries and with a didactic-moral invitation to readers not to forget the transience of earthly existence. [AM]
