“Church of Picerno”
Date
1857
Creator
Alphonse Bernoud (1820 - 1889, French) , Photographer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 69mm
width (print): 131mm
height (mount): 82mm
width (mount): 173mm
width (print): 131mm
height (mount): 82mm
width (mount): 173mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Stereoscopic view of earthquake damage to the Church of Picerno, Naples. The architectural study shows the church’s west-end elevation, with tiles and rafters missing from the right-hand side of the roof and the front gable brought down by the roof’s rocking motion during the earthquake.
Numbered “80” in pencil and titled “Church at Picerno” Right-hand margin, front mount. Inscribed verso “Église de Picerno” in ink and “page 111. P. 1 an outline sketch with a [little shading?]” in pencil.
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.88-89. Numbered ‘Photo pl.80’ and mentioned on page 111 as part of a chapter on the effects of shock upon buildings – relations to roofing.
Robert Mallet (1810–1881), an Irish civil engineer and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1854.
Numbered “80” in pencil and titled “Church at Picerno” Right-hand margin, front mount. Inscribed verso “Église de Picerno” in ink and “page 111. P. 1 an outline sketch with a [little shading?]” in pencil.
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.88-89. Numbered ‘Photo pl.80’ and mentioned on page 111 as part of a chapter on the effects of shock upon buildings – relations to roofing.
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