Sir William Hamilton's Vesuvian apparatus

Apollo, May, 2004 by Bent Sorensen

(5) Hamilton, op. cit., p. 5.

(6) Silke Ackermann and Jane Wess, 'Between antiquarianism and experiment: Hans Sloane, George III and collecting science', in Kim Sloan (ed.), Enlightenment: Discovering the World in the Eighteenth Century, London, 2003, pp. 150-57.

(7) 'Extract of a letter from the Hon. Sir William Hamilton [...] giving an account of the new eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1767', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. LVIII, 1769, p. 12. Reprinted in Hamilton, op. cit., pp. 31-32.

(8) For the rock collection see Peter Tandy and Alan R. Woolley, 'The British Museum's collection of Rocks and minerals from Vesuvius made by William Hamilton (1730-1803) and Teodoro Monticelli (1759-1846), and Hamilton's Observations on Vesuvius between 1764 and 1800', in Maria Rosaria Ghiara and Carmela Petti (eds.), Atti del Bicentenario Real Museo Mineralogico 1801-2001, Napoli, 2001, pp. 171-80.

(9) Central Archive, British Museum, London, 'Presents', I, 15 April 1768 (Jenkins and Sloan, op. cit., p. 305). Also mentioned in the General Meeting Minutes, fol. 619, 15 April 1768. The Standing Committee of Trustees (Minutes, fol. 1171), ordered on 26 August 1768: 'That the Frame containing the Picture of Mount Vesuvius be painted'.

(10) Hamilton, op. cit., pp, 25 26.

(11) Letter from Dr Matthew Maty to Sir William Hamilton, dated 5 July 1768. British Library, London, William Hamilton Correspondence and papers 1761-1803, Add. 40714, fol. 47 (Thackray, op. cit., pp. 67-68).

(12) Letter from Sir John Pringle to Sir William Hamilton, dated 2 May 1768. British Library, London, William Hamilton Correspondence and papers 1754-1802, Add. 42069, fol. 61. (Thackray, op. cit., p 67).

(13) Christie's, 23 June 1823, lot 24. I am grateful to Gosem C. Dullaart, Rijksbureau voor kunsthistorische documentatie, The Hague, for providing me with a photocopy of this catalogue.

(14) John Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish travellers in Italy 1701 1800, compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, New Haven and London, 1997, p. 66.

(15) See Denis Lamy, 'Latapie (Francois-de-Paule)', in Dictionnaire de Biographie francaise, vol. CXIII. Paris, 2000, pp. 1200-1202. Latapie's collections became later the backbone of the Natural History Museum in Bordeaux and he gave the Library three volumes which had formerly belonged to Montaigne, and subsequently to Montesquieu.

(16) Inna Sergeevna Nemilova, Frantsuzskaia zhivopis, XVIII vek. Gosudarstennyi Ermitazh: sobranie zopadnoevropeiskoi zhivopisi: nauchnyi katalog, Leningrad, 1985, no. 346.

(17) 'An Account of the late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In a Letter from the Right Honourable Sir William Hamilton, KB, F.R.S. to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P.R.S.', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. LXXXV, 1795, pp. 73-116.

(18) Jonathan Mayne, 'Thomas Gainsborough's Exhibition Box', Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, vol. I, no. 3, 1965, pp. 17-24.

(19) Renzo Dubbini, 'II paesaggio dei Diorami', Eidos, no. 5, 1890, pp. 26-39; Birgit Verwiebe, 'Transparente Bilder: Kunst und Geselligkeit im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Forschungen und Berichte, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin, 1991, pp. 229-42; eadem, 'Transparent Painting and Romantic Spirit: Experimental Anticipation of Modern Visual Arts', in Keith Hartley, Romantic spirit In German art 1790-1990, exh. cat., Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, South Bank Centre, London, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1994, pp. 171-77.