The literary, artistic, and scientific culture of early modern Naples is closely linked to the natural topography of the city, stretching from Iacopo Sannazaro’s poetic evocation of the Campania landscape to Giambattista Vico’s approach in which he anchors human civilization to the existential confrontation with natural forces.

With the open sea, the rocky coastline, and the menacing presence of Vesuvius, the image of Naples, more than any other city in early modern times, is associated in the collective imagination with the forces of nature. Even the populace was interpreted as a force of nature.

In this volume, art, literature, and science historians investigate the convergence of culture and nature in a unique geographic context.

• Content 6
• Introduction 8
• “Maestra natura” 18
• Virgile, source artistique et scientifique ‘locale’ dans la Naples aragonaise 24
• The Monte Nuovo Episode and the Changing Balance between Nature and Heritage in Sixteenth-Century Descriptions of Naples 42
• “Das unendliche Leben dieser unvergleichlichen Stadt” 62
• Natura e arte nel diario di un viaggio a Napoli di Monsignor Giovan Battista Confalonieri (1616) 76
• Silver’s Eye 98
• Bronzegüsse und Lavaströme 122
• Funny Games & Fatal Attractions 138
• Frame, Content, and Surface in Neapolitan Revetment 150
• „…a qua vivimus“ 168
• Color Plates 194
• A Porous Baroque 210
• Possible Ecologies of Vesuvian Nature and Art 226