Volcanoes in eighteenth-century Europe : an essay in environmental humanities
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Bibliographic Information
Volcanoes in eighteenth-century Europe : an essay in environmental humanities
（Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment, 2019:07）
Liverpool University Press on behalf of Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, c2019
- : pbk
- Other Title
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Volcanoes in eighteenth century Europe
Volcanoes in 18th century Europe
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Note
Bibliography: p. 239-261
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This study explores
the explosive history of volcanoes and volcanic thought in eighteenth-century
Europe, arguing that the topic of the volcano informed almost all areas of
human enquiry and endeavour at the time.
Encountered on the
Grand Tour, sought out by scientific explorers or endured by local populations
in southern Italy and Iceland, erupting volcanoes were a physical reality for many
Europeans in the eighteenth-century. For many others, they represented the very
image of overwhelming natural power, whether this was ultimately attributed to
spiritual or material causes. As such, the volcano proved an effective and
versatile 'tool for thinking' in a century which ushered in modernity on
several fronts: continental tourism, new earth sciences, the sublime and
picturesque in art, industrial and political revolution, the conception of the
modern nation-state, and early intimations of environmental and climate change.
But the volcano also gives us, in the twenty-first century, a privileged site
(as both topography and topos) at
which we can reconnect disparate and divided fields of research across the
sciences and the humanities.
Drawing on a rich variety of
multi-lingual primary sources and the latest critical thinking, this study
combines material and symbolic readings of eighteenth-century volcanism,
constantly shifting frameworks, so as to consider this topical object through
different disciplinary perspectives. The volcano is clearly
transnational; this research also demonstrates how it is fundamentally
transdisciplinary.
Table of Contents
List of illustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction
Chapter 1: From locus classicus to cosmopolitan picnic siteThe disturbing discovery of Herculaneum and PompeiiThe classical and empirical on EtnaCuriosity and katabasisGothic picnics on the volcano: Winckelmann and SadeTourist picnics on VesuviusFrom picnic sites to the land of cockaigneIncommensurability and measureChapter 2: Two modern 'Plinies' and the empirical turnOn the influence of Kircher and chemistryVolcanological theories based on seawaters and electricityThe basalt controversy and the empirical turnVolcanological networks and rival schools of thoughtChapter 3: On the volcanic sublime, its art and artificeEighteenth-century theories of the sublime: Burke and KantThe Alpine sublime and the volcanic sublime
The volcano as tableauThe sublime volcano in artArtificial volcanoesThe uncanny fascination with lavaIndustrial volcanoesFrom the sublime spectacle to the sublime spectatorChapter 4: More heat than light? Natural philosophies of volcanismAn anti-clerical volcanoThe volcano of popular passionsThe volcano as a source of enlightenmentPrometheus versus EmpedoclesChapter 5: A volcanology of revolution 1789-1794Staging the volcano of revolutionThe volcano and the TerrorJune 1794: Vesuvius and the TerrorChapter 6: Volcanic Iceland: conquering Hekla and surviving LakiBanks on Staffa and HeklaThe deadliest volcano: Laki 1783Lived experiences of the Laki eruption and its effects 1783-1784Eighteenth-century explanations for volcanogenic weather
ConclusionBibliographyIndex
by "Nielsen BookData"
