Goethe’s volcanoes

Goethe Etc. (proprietor: Goethe Girl) is a wonderful scholarly blog exploring the life, work and significance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). It features here because, among many other things, Goethe was interested in volcanoes, and when he visited Naples in 1787 during his Italian journey he took the opportunity to study, observe and ascend Vesuvius. The significance of Vesuvius to Goethe’s developing poetic and visual imagination is considered in Goethe and Vesuvius, a fascinating illustrated essay at Goethe Etc.

At the time of Goethe’s visit the British envoy in Naples was Sir William Hamilton, who was also greatly interested in volcanoes. Hamilton, however, was a ‘plutonist’, believing that volcanic action had deep-rooted causes and was a permanent and fundamental geological process, while Goethe espoused the ‘neptunist’ view that volcanoes were superficial phenomena of no profound geological significance.* This aspect of Goethe’s thought is discussed in Goethe and Vesuvius and also in another article at Goethe Etc., Goethe in Bohemia, which illuminates Goethe’s geology.

* Despite their different theories of volcanism Goethe rather admired Sir William, and definitely admired his wife, the (in)famous Emma.