Histoire et phénomènes du Vésuve. Exposés par le Pere Dom Jean-Marie Della-Torre, clerc régulier sommasque, garde bde la bibliothéque & du cabinet du roi des Deux-Siciles, & correspondant de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris. Traduction de l'Italien par M. l'abbé Péton.

Paris, Jean-Thomas Hérissant, 1760. 12mo (16.3 x 9.2 cm). xxiv, 399 pp., one large folded map of Mount Vesuvius, the Bay of Naples and surroundings, and five folded plates with panoramas and other views of the volcano, caldera, etc. Contemporary full mottled calf. Spine with five raised bands. Compartments with gilt floral vignettes and small red morocco label with gilt title. Marbled endpapers, marbled edges. = The first French translation by Abbé Péton of Giovanni Maria della Torre's (1712-1782) "Storia e fenomeni del Vesuvio", largely dealing with the recent eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Péton edited the work and added new information. It includes a list of works/authors writing about Mount Vesuvius from 1631 onwards, and the lengthy "Dissertation critique sur les opinions courantes touchant les phénomènes du Vésuve et des autres volcans; par le pere Gaetan d'Amato", followed by the supplemental notes made by Della Torre in 1860, which were published in Italian in 1761. The last plate depicts the situation of the caldera on 30 April 1759. Rubbing to the boards, a few spots, small hole in the rear endpapers, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Ward and Carozzi, 2185.