Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Burchard in Naples: Alum Mines and Grottoes In Pozzuoli: April-May 1494

In April 1494, Johann Burchard was sent by pope Alexander VI to Naples on an important mission. It was in his offficial capacity as Master of Ceremonies to the papal court, that Cardinal Orsini asked him to ready at once, to journey south to Naples. He was to arrange two ceremonies for the court there. One was the coronation of Alfonso after the death that year of his father King Ferrante. The other was the marriage of Sancia, an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso, to one of the pope's relations, Don Joffre.

The pope was at last taking action on previous perceived slights and for the guarded restraint shown for the Neapolitan kingdom. Both of these, the coronation and the marriage, were intending to send a signal by this new Borgia pope, showing his support for the continuity of dynastic reign for the Aragon family in Naples. And this was despite the recent and increasingly clamorous inheritance claims of the new French King Charles VIII on the kingdom of Naples. These activities for Burchard took about three weeks. As it turned out, these solemn actions clothed in some of the deepest of Catholic traditions, would not prove a lasting legacy.

After his duties were discharged, Burchard spending a day off, took a tour of the area around Naples, including their famous steam baths and alum mines. To the east of Naples lay Mt Vesuvius. To the west the famous and ancient steam baths of Pozzuoli. Master Burchard made a day tour of it and wrote down details of what he found. Even the details of how he travelled are interesting for us to see how someone of his station could go sightseeing. It seems he had never been there before.
"On the morning of Tuesday, May 13th, I set out from Naples to visit its ancient and valued monuments, and with me rode Bellaguardia, one of the royal dispensers who had my household's affairs committed to his charge by the court. He brought with him a mule loaded with wine, loaves, meat, cake, wood and other things suitable for our nourishment and to enable us to see what we wished, whilst additionally various members of my company joined me to see the sights.
We came first to a place called Agnano, four miles from Naples, where a great many shelters were erected over ground from which there arose such a heat that a person soon freely perspired. As a result, they called these places steam-baths, and in them men could be cured from all kinds of illness. There was one shelter amongst the rest which it was death to enter unless a man immediately threw himself into the cold bath provided, and in this way avoided being killed. A mile away was Lumara where alum was made; stones hewn out from the mountain close by were broken down by firing; then scattered out for exposure, and washed repeatedly with water: they were next heated again with fresh water in great receptacles fashioned like furnaces, and were finally extracted to be put back again into medium-sized salt-pans or casks and made into alum." [pp.85-6]

Our editor/translator for these interesting details of the mining industry, Geoffrey Parker, tell us that alum was essential for the dyeing of wools and thus, we also know, essential for the growing clothing, tapestry and fabric markets. Previously, he explains, the source for alum was the Turks, as that was who now controlled Asia Minor and, where the substance was still controlled, mined and refined. He goes on.
"Rich deposits of alum were found in 1462 at Tolfa in the Papal State, and from this source the pope was able to establish virtually his own monopoly to supply the European markets; the revenue at the time was to be used for preparing a crusade, but all too soon was diverted to other papal needs. Other volcanic areas, as at Lumara in the Neapolitan Kingdom, were also found to have small alum deposits, and were worked independently of the pope's control. Such smaller mines were later closed...." 
The mining of alum spread across Europe. In Italy, in those places like Tolfa, it continued to be exploited until the invention of synthetic alum in the 19th century. They also mined sulfur on the other side of the mountain.[p. 85]
"The region was flat, shaped like a wheel whose perimeter was half a mile long, and it was surrounded by mountains at a greater distance: one road led out from it to Pozzuoli. There were two lakes there some distance apart which bubbled continually, and a hole from which a geyser of steam repeatedly shot up, deafeningly and with a violent shock each time, though  without any flame. The  mountains and the land, in fact all the things to be seen there, appeared to be covered in sulfur... Pozzuoli lay at a distance of a mile and a half from it, but a mile away there was a very old building like the Roman Colosseum and called the Truglio, with caves underneath where three thousand or so horses could be stabled... Not far away was another great subterranean grotto, over whose caves gardens were planted and cultivated with trees and various fruits. Bellaguardia pointed out particular matters of interest for us, and also saw to it that we lacked nothing from the royal bounty for our needs." [pp. 86-7]
After dinner they continued by barge to Baiae where most of the baths were. Some were opulent like the Marvellous Grotto. Some Burchard called dirty, like at Trepergole. There was the peak of Monte Guaro, there were more baths at Bagnoli, and more underground caves, tunnels and passages running this way and that under the hills. There were also a number of ancient ruins of forts and castles dotting the hills. [p. 88]

The next day he returned to Rome after receiving a generous gift from king Alfonso of 100 ducats. Burchard left by Vespers, he said, and arrived safely in Rome five days later on 19 May, 1494. [p. 89]
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quotes and pagination from Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963

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