page_title: William Hamilton (diplomat)
section_title: Volcanoes
hierarchical_section_title: William Hamilton (diplomat) / Naples / Volcanoes
caption_attribution_description: Eruption of Vesuvius 1760-1761
context_page_description: Sir William Hamilton, KB, PC, FRS, FRSE, was a British diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800. He studied the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society and recipient of the Copley Medal. His second wife was Emma Hamilton, famed as Horatio Nelson's mistress.
context_section_description: Soon after Hamilton arrived in Naples, Mount Vesuvius began to show signs of activity and in the summer of 1766 he sent an account of an eruption, together with drawings and samples of salts and sulphurs, to the Royal Society in London. On the strength of this paper he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In the autumn of 1767 there was an even greater eruption and again Hamilton sent a report to the Royal Society. The two papers were published as an article in the Society's journal Philosophical Transactions.
  The Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal in 1770 for his paper, "An Account of a Journey to Mount Etna". In 1772 he published his writings on both volcanoes in a volume called Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other volcanos. This was followed in 1776 by a collection of his letters on volcanoes, entitled Campi Phlegraei (Flaming fields, the name given by the Ancients to the area around Naples). The volume was illustrated by Pietro Fabris.
  Hamilton was also interested in earthquakes. He visited Calabria and Messina after the earthquake of 1783 and wrote a paper for the Royal Society.
caption: An illustration by Pietro Fabris in Hamilton's Campi Phlegraei
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