SOTTO IL VULCANO. LA TOPOGRAFIA DELLE CITTÀ VESUVIANE NEL DIBATTITO DELLA PRIMA ETÀ MODERNA

Moving from the fascination with the underground of Campania, stimulated by the discovery of antiquities and studies of the subterranean landscape, as well as scientific research in geology and volcanology, this contribution aims to methodologically test the dialogue between studies on disasters, discussions of natural history, and antiquarian research in order to reconstruct the debate about the topography of the vesuvian territory, suspended between memory and oblivion, in the era preceding the start of the official archaeological excavations during the Bourbon period. First and foremost, a critical and comparative analysis of the textual sources on Pompeii and Herculaneum written by humanists, writers, artists, and scientists between the 15th and 17th centuries is proposed — including Flavio Biondo, Ambrogio Leone, Pirro Ligorio, Colanello Pacca de' Medici, and Gaspare Paragallo. The aim is to understand to what extent the cities were known or unknown before archaeological excavations and to attempt to reconstruct the «perception» of the topography of the Vesuvius area. The final part of the contribution offers a broader reflection on the tools and methods applied to the study of the past, particularly regarding the transition from a deductive approach, based on the study of the books, to an inductive one, founded on the empirical observation of reality.