Church of the Madonna di Loreto, Polla
Date
1857
Creator
Alphonse Bernoud (1820 - 1889, French) , Photographer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 73mm
width (print): 144mm
height (mount): 86mm
width (mount): 177mm
width (print): 144mm
height (mount): 86mm
width (mount): 177mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Stereoscopic view of earthquake damage to the Church of the Madonna di Lorento at Polla, Italy. Architectural study looking at the exposed interior showing damage to the nave and chancel. The remaining walls are propped with timbers. Two figures can be seen in the foreground standing among the rubble.
Surface dirt to right-hand stereograph.
Titled “Polla. Chiesa Sta. Trinita’ in ink, right-hand margin front mount and numbered 83” crossed out and corrected to “168”, upper left-hand side, in pencil. Inscribed verso “page. 116. P.1. Polla”.
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.294-295. Numbered ‘Photo pl.168’ and mentioned on page 114 to illustrate the fall of the cylindric vaulting of the nave and chancel at Polla. Further description of the church is found on page 296 on the general structure and fissures caused by the direction of the wave-path.
Robert Mallet (1810–1881), an Irish civil engineer and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1854.
Surface dirt to right-hand stereograph.
Titled “Polla. Chiesa Sta. Trinita’ in ink, right-hand margin front mount and numbered 83” crossed out and corrected to “168”, upper left-hand side, in pencil. Inscribed verso “page. 116. P.1. Polla”.
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.294-295. Numbered ‘Photo pl.168’ and mentioned on page 114 to illustrate the fall of the cylindric vaulting of the nave and chancel at Polla. Further description of the church is found on page 296 on the general structure and fissures caused by the direction of the wave-path.
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