"Auletta"
Date
1857
Creator
Alphonse Bernoud (1820 - 1889, French) , Photographer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 69mm
width (print): 147mm
height (mount): 85mm
width (mount): 176mm
width (print): 147mm
height (mount): 85mm
width (mount): 176mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Stereoscopic view of earthquake damage to the hilltop town of Auletta, Italy. Landscape study showing effected buildings in the upper part of the town.
Titled “Auletta esterno del [?]” in ink to the right-hand margin and numbered “136” in pencil to the left, front mount. Inscribed verso “no/ al auletta” in ink and “Auletta. page 237. P. II” 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.260-261. Numbered ‘Photo pl.136’ and mentioned on page 260 on the condition of Auletta.
Robert Mallet (1810–1881), an Irish civil engineer and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1854.
Titled “Auletta esterno del [?]” in ink to the right-hand margin and numbered “136” in pencil to the left, front mount. Inscribed verso “no/ al auletta” in ink and “Auletta. page 237. P. II” 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.260-261. Numbered ‘Photo pl.136’ and mentioned on page 260 on the condition of Auletta.
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