Map of Italy with Etna and Vesuvius Erupting

The artwork

Bottom left is Etna in the eruption of 1669, “a true draught” according to the caption: the lava runs down to the sea, past the castle of Catania, letter D. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• Moll's Italy with Etna, Vesuvius and Mount Eolo in the insets, borders coloured by hand.
• In the large format it reads region by region, above a sofa or along a corridor.
• A gift for anyone who grew up in the shadow of a volcano.

The eruption began on 11 March above Nicolosi and lasted 122 days. The flow buried whole villages and in Catania filled the moat of Castello Ursino, pushing the shore out by several hundred metres. A priest, Diego Pappalardo, tried to stop it: with a team of men protected by wet hides he broke open the side of the flow with picks, and the lava changed course. But now it was heading for Paternò, and hundreds of armed men from Paternò forced them to stop. It is the first recorded attempt to divert a lava flow.

The map, “A New Map of Italy”, is by Herman Moll, engraver and geographer in London, who signed it in 1714 and dedicated it to Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Empire's general. The other two insets show Vesuvius in the eruption of 1631 and a mountain that breathes wind instead of fire: Monte Eolo above Cesi, in Umbria, with the caves the air blows out of. Moll was so well known that Jonathan Swift, in Gulliver's Travels, has his hero call him “my worthy friend”. This impression, hand-coloured along the borders, is in the David Rumsey Map Collection, which dates it to 1732, the year Moll died.

Above a sofa or along a corridor, it is a gift for anyone who grew up in the shadow of a volcano, in Catania or in Naples. And bottom left, the lava of 1669 is still flowing towards the sea.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
With frame: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass