HAMILTON (WILLIAM) Campi Phlegraei. Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies [-Supplement to the Campi Phlegraei being an Account of the Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the Month of August 1779], 3 parts in 1 vol., FIRST EDITION, edited by Pietro Fabris, letterpress titles and parallel text in English and French, 59 hand-coloured engraved plates after Fabris, plates edged in black with grey wash margins, one double-page hand-coloured engraved map by Joseph Guerra after Fabris, tissue guards, paper-flaw crease to one corner touching image of plate 26, full green morocco gilt by C. Smith (with stamp on front free endpaper), the covers with 7-line fillet border incorporating large elaborate ornaments on each side, spine in six compartments within raised bands, all elaborately tooled, marbled endpapers, g.e., spine ends neatly restored, joints slightly rubbed [Brunet III, 31; Lowndes II, p. 989], folio (455 x 310mm.), Naples, [for Pietro Fabris], 1776-1779 FINE FIRST EDITION OF HAMILTON'S IMPORTANT AND MAGNIFICENTLY ILLUSTRATED WORK ON VOLCANOES, COMPLETE WITH THE RARE SUPPLEMENT. Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803), whilst serving as a British ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800, pursued his passions as an antiquary and art collector, and developed "a great interest in volcanoes, earning a contemporary European reputation as 'the modern Pliny' and the 'professor of earthquakes'" (ODNB). He made over sixty ascents to the crater of Vesuvius, during which he took samples of volcanic rock, undertook scientific experiments and made detailed drawings, which formed the basis of several papers published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, of which he was made a member in 1766. It was, however, his luxuriously produced Campi Phlegraei, with its beautiful hand-coloured plates executed after Pietro Fabris (and overseen by Hamilton himself), that made "volcanoes— the 'fields of fire' alluded to in the title — a popular subject in art and poetry and to cause a visit to Vesuvius to be a necessary stage on the grand tour" (ODNB). Amongst the distinguished visitors Hamilton accompanied as guide to the volcano were the king and queen of Naples, who are depicted in plate 38 (together with Hamilton and an artist with his easel) on a night time visit to watch the flowing lava, capturing "the new aesthetic of the Sublime in the spectacle of observed volcanic eruptions" (Society of Antiquaries, website). Provenance: The Getty family, confirmed by Maggs as being from his library in correspondence with current owner.