Volcanoes in Eighteenth-Century Europe - 9781786942296

Volcanoes in Eighteenth-Century EuropeAn Essay in Environmental Humanities\nAuthor(s): David McCallam\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Liverpool University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Voltaire Foundation\nISBN-13: 9781786942296, 978-1786942296\nSynopsis\nThis study explores\nthe explosive history of volcanoes and volcanic thought in eighteenth-century\nEurope, arguing that the topic of the volcano informed almost all areas of\nhuman enquiry and endeavour at the time.\n\nEncountered on the\nGrand Tour, sought out by scientific explorers or endured by local populations\nin southern Italy and Iceland, erupting volcanoes were a physical reality for many\nEuropeans in the eighteenth-century. For many others, they represented the very\nimage of overwhelming natural power, whether this was ultimately attributed to\nspiritual or material causes. As such, the volcano proved an effective and\nversatile tool for thinking in a century which ushered in modernity on\nseveral fronts: continental .