“Strada Fioretti, Polla”
Date
1857
Creator
Alphonse Bernoud (1820 - 1889, French) , Photographer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 73mm
width (print): 147mm
height (mount): 85mm
width (mount): 177mm
width (print): 147mm
height (mount): 85mm
width (mount): 177mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Stereoscopic view of earthquake damage in Polla, Italy, showing ruined buildings along the Fiorita road with the surrounding hills in the background. The rubble strewn street curves to the right as viewed and shows buildings on both sides badly affected with partially collapsed walls and caved in rooftops.
Numbered and titled on the right-hand side, front mount ’61. Strada Fioretti, Polla’ and further inscribed ‘Polla’ on the verso in pencil.
Unpublished but part of a collection of photograph for Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857: The first principles of observational seismology as developed in the report to the Royal Society... , by Robert Mallet, 2 vols., (London, Chapman and Hall, 1862). Photog. (No. 61bis) (Coll. Roy. Soc.).
Robert Mallet (1810–1881), an Irish civil engineer and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1854.
Numbered and titled on the right-hand side, front mount ’61. Strada Fioretti, Polla’ and further inscribed ‘Polla’ on the verso in pencil.
Unpublished but part of a collection of photograph for Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857: The first principles of observational seismology as developed in the report to the Royal Society... , by Robert Mallet, 2 vols., (London, Chapman and Hall, 1862). Photog. (No. 61bis) (Coll. Roy. Soc.).
Robert Mallet (1810–1881), an Irish civil engineer and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1854.
Object history
With the support of the Royal Society, Mallet undertook a survey of the damage caused by the 1857 earthquake in Basilicata, in the Kingdom of Naples, to advance his theories of seismic waves. Two French photographers, Alphonse Bernoud and an unidentified man known as Grellier, were employed to photograph the affected region. For a description of Mallet's expedition and the circumstances and attributions of the photographs, see Graziano Ferrari and Anita McConnell, "Robert Mallet and the 'Great Neapolitan Earthquake' of 1857", Notes and Records of the Royal Society 59 (1) (2005), pp. 45–64.
Associated place