4092 - Sommer, Giorgio

Sommer, Giorgio Views of Naples, Pompeii, and the surrounding area. 1860s–1870s. 40 albumen prints, mounted on album pages. Each approx. 20 x 24.5 cm. Some are numbered and titled at the lower edge. Bound in a contemporary red canvas album with the gilt-stamped title “Napoli e Pompei” on the front cover. Giorgio Sommer is renowned for his extensive documentation of Italy’s landscapes and archaeological sites, particularly those of Rome, Pompeii, and Naples. His photographs of landmarks such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Mount Vesuvius, and the ruins of Pompeii played an important role in preserving and sharing Italy’s cultural heritage. In addition to views of Naples, this album offers a compelling visual record of Pompeii, featuring its public baths, the amphitheater, the temples of Mercury and Isis, the villa of Diomedes, and plaster casts of victims of the eruption. It also features the well-known images *The Spaghetti Eaters* and *Delousing Scene*. – Album with a split and torn spine and soiled covers; album pages with light foxing; some prints with fading along the edges and a few with retouched spots; otherwise, most prints are in good to very good condition. Lit.: Marina Miraglia, Pino Piantanida, Ulrich Pohlmann, and Dietmar Siegert, eds. Giorgio Sommer in Italy: Photographs 1857–1888. Heidelberg: Braus, 1992, ill. pp. 82, 84, 98, 104, 119, 130, 133, 144, 145, and dust jacket (Vesuvius eruption).