La scoperta della Baia di Napoli attraverso i Campi Phlegraei di Sir William Hamilton

The cultural landscape is interpreted as a complex system, on a territory scale, where accurate, natural and artificial elements stand along with resources, systems and networks. In all of these elements it is essential to find the relationship among those who built this landscape over time and those who respect and enjoy it: all this happens through the relationship among the cultures of all the peo- ple involved. The recognition of the cultural landscape allows its promotion as well as the improvement of its inhabitant identity and of their role in the transformation process. The description of Naples and its bay is plenty of words and images that allow us to trace its evolution, development and trans- formation. It was the favourite destination of the Grand Tour trav- ellers, where the Neapolitan ‘subject’ led to the recognition of a specific Neapolitan landscape painting. On the other hand, just in the early 17th century the idea of landscape began to develop and just in the second half of 18th century the iconography is recognized as science, until the iconography of landscape was defined. Between the landscape painting linked to the educational journey and the job of the German naturalist Von Humboldt, who intro- duced geography as a scientific discipline with his work, where the landscape turned from an aesthetical view into a scientific one, we can find a work that is a little-known out of the Neapolitan artistic context, that is Campi Phlegraei. Observations on the Volcanoes of the two Sicilies by sir William Hamilton (1776-1779). This is an ex- traordinary work where the author, British ambassador in Naples, points out Campi Phlegraei according to the ancient definition of “lands burnt by fire”, that is the whole Neapolitan territory corre- sponding to the bay of Naples up to its most internal areas. It is an incredible work, where this English intellectual tries to reveal all the mysteries of the Vesuvius and the other volcanoes, and where he applies the techniques of the geologic stratigraphy and volcanol- ogy for the first time. This small book consists of the letters Hamilton wrote to the Royal Society in London. Particularly interesting are 54 watercolour engravings by Pietro Fabris, depicting this territory in great detail. This work, foreseeing the idea of reading places and landscape as a mixture of knowledge and perceptions, can represent a hint that supports the reinterpretation of the actual state of the territory so as to find the values and potentials to start from for an aware action of maintenance, fruition and communication of the territory, in compliance with the peculiarities of the cultural land- scape which it is part of.