174 



TEMPLE OF JUPITER SERAPIS. 



[Ch. XXX. 



move 



ment had begun before 1530, for the Canonico Andrea di Jorio 

 cites two authentic documents in iUustration of this point. 

 The first, dated Oct. 1503^ is a deed written in Italian, by 

 which Ferdinand and Isabella grant to the University of 

 Puzzuoli a portion of land, ' where the sea is drying up ' 

 (che va seccando el mare) ; the second, a document in Latin, 

 dated May 23, 1511, or nearly 8 years after, by which 

 Ferdinand grants to the city a certain territory around 

 Puzzuoli, where the ground is dried up (desiccatum)."^ 



The principal elevation, however, of the low tract un- 

 questionably took place at the time of the great eruption of 

 Monte Nuovo in 1538. That event and the earthquakes 

 which preceded it have been already described (YoL I. 

 p. 609) ; and we have seen that two of the eye-witnesses of 

 the convulsion, Falconi and Giacomo di Toledo, agree in 

 declaring that the sea abandoned a considerable tract of the 

 shore, so that fish were taken by the inhabitants ; and, 

 among other things, Falconi mentions that he saw two springs 

 in the newly discovered ruins. 



The flat land, when first upraised, must have been more 

 extensive than now, for the sea encroaches somewhat rapidly, 

 both to the north and south-east of Puzzuoli. The coast 

 had, Vv^hen I examined it in 1828, given way more than a 

 foot in a twelvemonth ; and I was assured, by fishermen in 

 the bay, that it has lost ground near Puzzuoli, to the extent 

 of 30 feet, within their memory. 



It is, moreover, very probable that the land rose to a 

 greater height at first, before it ceased to move upwards, than 

 the level at which it was observed to stand when the temple 

 was re-discovered in 1 749, for we learn from a memoir of 

 Mccolini, published in 1838, that since the beginning of the 

 19th century, the temple of Serapis has subsided more than 

 2 feet. That learned architect visited the ruins frequently, 

 for the sake of making drawings, in the beginning of the 

 year 1807, and was in the habit of remaining: there throuofh- 



& 



out the day, yet never saw the pavement overfloAved by the 



* Sul Tempio di Serap. ch. yiii. 



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