Volcanic Temporalities: The ‘Voyage Pittoresque De Naples Et De Sicile’ and Consciousness of Geological Change in the Human Landscape of the Phlegraean Fields

Eighteenth-century natural history discovered that the entire territory of the Phlegraean Fields had been formed by volcanic activity, leading to a radical change in perceptions of a region already famous for its ancient ruins and connexions to ancient history and mythology. In this impermanent territory where works of architecture could be older than the volcanic hills beside them, writers expressed a sense of vertigo when confronted with the range and weight of the new ideas induced by their visit to the area, especially at a moment when scientists were expanding consciousness of geological time beyond the age of the Earth deduced from the Bible. Taking as a case study the chapter on the Phlegraean Fields within the beautifully illustrated Voyage pittoresque de Naples et de Sicile , this article examines the textual, pictorial and cartographical strategies through which this new understanding of the area’s temporality was communicated to a nonspecialist readership within the European elites.