424 Miscellaneous Intel/is[cnce. 



4, Scipione Mazella's Account of the Rise of Monte Nuovo, in 

 the Year 1538. 



[To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science.'] 



Dear Sir — I send you an account of the Monte Nuovo, 

 extracted from a Description of the Environs of Naples, by 

 Scipione Mazella, printed there in the year 1594, fifty-six years 

 after the formation of the mountain : as the Latin description is 

 quoted from an earlier work, it is not improbable that the 

 author may have been a contemporary, if not an eye-witness of 

 the remarkable event he commemorates. 



Believe me very sincerely yours, 



ASIIHURST MaJENDIE. 



" Opposite to the Monte Barbaro is a mountain about three 

 miles in circumference, and nearly of the same height as the 

 Monte Barbaro : it extends on the south towards the sea, on 

 the north to the Lake Avcrnus, on the west nearly to the 

 Sudatorio, and on the east joins the base of the Monte Barbaro : 

 it is called by the country-people Monte Nuovo, because it was 

 formed in the space of a d;;y and a night. In the year 1538, 

 on the 29th of September, several earthquakes having been felt 

 throughout the whole district of Puzzuolo on the preceding 

 days, the earth opened near Tripergola with a terrible sound 

 like thunder, so that it was expected that the whole country 

 would have been destroyed : the sky was then serene, and 

 from the aperture burst forth flames of fire, bearing with them 

 cinders and red hot stones, with dense smoke : these stones 

 were carried up into the air with such force, that it was a 

 wonderful and terrible thing to contemplate. Afterwards the 

 wind rose with great fury, and the cinders were dispersed on 

 all sides, and driven even into Africa. So vast a quantity of 

 stones and cinders were thrown round the chasm, as to form 

 the mountain now called the Monte Nuovo. In consequence 

 of this chasm, and the formation of the mountain, the castle of 

 Tripergola, with a great part of the lakes Avernus and Lucrine, 

 and all those antient and noble buildings which were on their 

 banks, and most of the baths were overwhelmed. The cele- 

 brated philosopher Simone Portio of Naples wrote a learned 

 treatise on the burning of Tripergola, and relative to our 

 subject states as follows : " Puteolorum regio fuit biennio 

 fere magnisterrcmotibus agitata, ut nulla in ea superesset domu 

 Integra, quae proximam minabatur ruinam. At die vigessimo 

 septimo et vigessimo octavo Septemb. anno 1538 perpetuis 

 diebus, et noctibus terra est commota; mare passibus fere 

 200 recessit quo loco Accolse ingentem piscium multitudinem 

 caeperunt et aquse dulces erant. Die vero 29 magnus terrse 

 tractus, qui inter radices montis Gauri (quern Barbarum appel- 



