Vulcano

View taken from Voyages Dans Les Deux Siciles Et Dans Quelques Parties Des Apennins, Par Spallanzani, Professeur d'Histoire naturelle dans l'université de Pavie. Traduits e l'Italien par G. Toscan, Bibliothécaire du Museum national d'Histoire naturelle de Paris, avec des Notes du cit. Faujas-de-St.-Fond... A Paris, Chez Maradan, Libraire, rue Pavée-André-des-Arcs, n°. 16. An VIII. 1799. French translation of the work first printed in 1795 in Bern, contains a variant of the 7 plates depicting the Aeolian Islands and Etna that were engraved by L. Anderloni.

Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729 –1799) was an Italian naturalistt, biologist and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions, animal reproduction, as well as to geology and volcanology. In 1754, at the age of 25, he became professor of logic, metaphysics snd Greek in the University of Reggio. In 1762 he was ordained as a priest, and in 1763 moved to Modena. He became the Chair of the Natural History Department at the University of Pavia in 1769.  Spallanzani also became director of the museum at the University of Pavia, where he greatly expanded the collections with specimens collected during his many travels in the Mediterranean region. In June 1768 Spallanzani was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1775 was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In the six volumes of the Voyages dans les Deux Siciles, Lazzaro Spallanzani offers a major contribution to the  development of the science of volcanology. His surveys were carried out on active volcanos of southern Italy (in particular in the Aeolian Islands and on Mt. Etna and Vesuvius).In addition to contributing to the development of the theory of volcanism, he interprets the process of formation of pumice. He describes the processes of volcanism, the associated seismic activity, and the mineralogy and rocks associated with the volcanoes and was the first to apply experimental methods to describe the formation of pumice and other rocks and minerals.

Etching, some foxing, otherwise good condition.