Breve Notizia di un Viaggiatore sulle Incrostazioni Silicee Termali d'Italia

This small pamphlet in James Smithson's library is by his friend and fellow mineralogist, William Thomson, who gave it to him. Thomson had settled in Italy after university and Smithson visited him there periodically during his travels. Held in the U.S. uniquely by SIL, it presents a brief report on the thermal siliceous encrustations at the Campo Flegrei near Naples and is followed by a catalog of the lavas, crystals, minerals, and other materials that Thomson collected from the spectacular eruption of Vesuvius in June 1794, a selection of which he sent to Smithson.