Actress Emma Fielding reads Gillian Darley's 'Vesuvius, The Most Famous Volcano in the World'. Dormant since 1944, but still a potential threat to the thousands who live at its foot, Vesuvius has produced its own literature, imagery and scientific insights.

In the early nineteenth century, geologists long used to seeing the volcano as a giant chemistry set, were now all set to use it as a research laboratory for fieldwork using first-hand evidence. Industrialists were also fascinated and the great iron master and inventor, James Naysmith, climbed the volcano in 1865, tied a card from his Bridgewater Foundry to a piece of lava, and chucked it into the volcano as a 'token of respectful civility to Vulcan, the head of our craft'.

For him, as for the ancients, the volcano potentially held the secrets of the universe. Polymath, Mary Somerville, founder of the Oxford women's college, moved from Rome to Naples, from where she could observe the volcano's behaviour with great attention. She was to witness and be moved by the terrible destruction of the 1872 eruption. Afterwards, volcanologist, Frank Perret, an American electrical engineer, took the first steps towards predicting an eruption as well as being one of the first to photograph the eruption of 1906 in great detail. He also observed the terrible scene in Naples itself, as the population attempted to flee the city, a sight which had changed little since the time of Pompeii.

Perret was amongst those imprisoned by heavy ash in Vesuivus' Observatory during the eruption. Along with six caribinieri he and other scientists could not leave the building for more than a fortnight, but were able to record a volcanic eruption from inside the volcanic zone for the first time.

Additional readings by Virginia Ironside. Abridged by Olivia Seligman

Producer: Olivia Seligman
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4. Show less