Campi Phlegraei

Today the term Campi Phlegraei is used to describe the volcanic area around Pozzuoli to the west of Naples. Hamilton's magnificent publication was based on his letters to the Royal Society, which detailed the volcanic activities he had witnessed not only in that area but on the islands off its coast, in the area around Vesuvius and at Etna in Sicily, Stromboli and the Lipari islands.

This work is the best known of Hamilton's works on volcanic activity and the most lavishly illustrated. The colour is almost opaque, practically concealing the engraved surface. Hamilton described them as 'executed with such delicacy and perfection, as scarcely to be distinguished from the original drawings themselves'. Fabris, an artist living in Naples, was commissioned and trained by Hamilton to sketch the volcanoes of Southern Italy. In four years he and Hamilton climbed Vesuvius 22 times, often at great risk as Hamilton wished to every stage of the eruptions.

The figures of Hamilton, often wearing a red coat, and Fabris, wearing a blue coat, appear in some plates. Hamilton's life was fictionalised by Susan Sontag in her novel The Volcano Lover (1992).