1.04 Giuliani 1632
Gianbernardino Giuliani, Trattato del Monte Vesuvio e de’ suoi incendi, Naples 1632
Be 4015-2323 raro IV
Giuliani’s treatise is one of the many popular volumes that spread throughout the Kingdom of Naples after the eruption of 1631. The work, dedicated to Gaspar de Guzmán, opens and closes with 11 poems on a Vesuvian theme, but further verses also appear elsewhere within the book (pp. 13, 16, 21-22, 26, 27, 28-29, 30-33, 53, 88, 106, 181-183). The author, Secretary of the Neapolitan People, immediately shows off his erudition, citing numerous ancient and modern sources concerning the history and geography of the volcano. The treatise proper begins on pp. 23-26, where the narration of the 1631 eruption is discussed from its first day: 15 December. Giuliani explains in this section how he uses sources previous to his own to demonstrate that Vesuvius has always been active, but above all to point out that no eruption is comparable to the present one. The catastrophe is described in the first person and in detail: the damage, the victims, the earthquakes. Numerous excursuses are devoted to the latter (e.g. pp. 99-105), but the main focus is on human actions, especially religious processions and the reorganisation of a civil order. [AP]
