Cathedral, Marsico Nuovo
Date
1857
Creator
Alphonse Bernoud (1820 - 1889, French) , Photographer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 71mm
width (print): 144mm
height (mount): 82mm
width (mount): 175mm
width (print): 144mm
height (mount): 82mm
width (mount): 175mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Stereoscopic view of earthquake damage to the north side of the cathedral at Marsico Nuovo, Naples. Photographed from a low vantage point, the cathedral rises behind a group of buildings. Damage is visible on the upper part of the church apse.
Printing instructions inscribed in pencil on the left-hand side of the front mount, ‘All within the pencil line [?]’, now faded, with a vertical boundary line marked in pencil across the print. Numbered ‘61’ and titled ‘Cathedrale, côté nord, Marsiconuovo’. A further inscription on the verso reads, ‘no/. Cathedral of Marsico Nuovo. North side’ in ink, with repeated printing instruction, ‘P. 90. P.1 all within the pencil line [?] a transcript.’
This illustration was reproduced as a lithograph, and in a simplified form, in 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), pp.42-43. Numbered ‘Photo pl.61’ and also mentioned on page 87 as an example of fissures produced by twisting movements by transversal vibrations, evident in the damage to the semi-cylindrical apse of the church "Photog. No. 61".
Robert Mallet (1810–1881), an Irish civil engineer and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1854.
Printing instructions inscribed in pencil on the left-hand side of the front mount, ‘All within the pencil line [?]’, now faded, with a vertical boundary line marked in pencil across the print. Numbered ‘61’ and titled ‘Cathedrale, côté nord, Marsiconuovo’. A further inscription on the verso reads, ‘no/. Cathedral of Marsico Nuovo. North side’ in ink, with repeated printing instruction, ‘P. 90. P.1 all within the pencil line [?] a transcript.’
This illustration was reproduced as a lithograph, and in a simplified form, in 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), pp.42-43. Numbered ‘Photo pl.61’ and also mentioned on page 87 as an example of fissures produced by twisting movements by transversal vibrations, evident in the damage to the semi-cylindrical apse of the church "Photog. No. 61".
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