2.03 Mormile 1670
Giuseppe Mormile, Descrittione della città di Napoli e del suo amenissimo distretto, e dell’antichità della città di Pozzuolo […], con le figure degli edificii e con gli epitaffi che vi sono, Naples 1670
E-NAP 11-2170/b raro III
The “descrittione” (‘description’) by the Neapolitan ecclesiastic Giuseppe Mormile presents readers with a survey of the most significant places in Naples and Pozzuoli, in a narrative style and flowing form. The first edition of 1616 was followed by a second (1625) and a third (1670), shown here, which included significant changes compared to the previous editions. The work was amended on the basis of other writers, including Giulio Cesare Capaccio (cf. c. 2r), and “purged of infinite errors that made it defective”, as the title page puts it. The description of Naples and its surroundings is given on pp. 1-83, and chapter XIV deals with Vesuvius and its fires (pp. 74-78). The copy in the Bibliotheca Hertziana lacks the view of Mergellina and Cumae that opens the description of Pozzuoli (pp. 85ff). Instead, the woodcuts at the head of the chapters of this section are present, largely copied from those of the Sito et antichità della città di Pozzuolo by Scipione Mazzella (cf. copy in the exhibition). Compared to the model, the close link between text and image is in some cases ignored: the plates do not correspond to the contents or are reproduced in different chapters. [ES]
