When Mozart and his father visited Naples in June 1770, Leopold wrote to his wife: ‘On Monday and Tuesday etc. we’re going to take a closer look at Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum – the towns that are currently being excavated – and admire the curiosities that have already been discovered.’ Under the guidance of William Hamilton, Leopold and Wolfgang visited not only Vesuvius, but also Caserta, the royal palace of Carlo VII of Naples, designed by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1752 and considered an architectural marvel, and the well-known porcelain factory at Capodimonte, established in 1743. Their sightseeing thus encompassed not only the old and the new, but a confluence of antiquity and modernity: the excavation of ancient ruins was a modern, Enlightenment undertaking.
In the same letter in which Leopold mentions his visit to Vesuvius, he also describes the excursion he and Mozart took to the sites around the Bay of Naples:
On the 13th – St Anthony’s Day – you’d have found us at sea. We took a carriage and drove out to Pozzuoli at 5 in the morning, arriving there before 7 and taking a boat to Baia, where we saw the baths of Nero, the underground grotto of Sybilla Cumana, the Lago d’Averno, Tempio di Venere, Tempio di Diana, il Sepolchro d’Agripinna, the Elysian Fields or Campi Elisi, the Dead Sea where the ferryman was Charon, la Piscina Mirabile and the Cente Camerelle etc., on the return journey many old baths, temples, underground rooms etc., il Monte Nuovo, il Monte Gauro, il Molo di Pozzuoli, the Coliseum, the Solfatara, the Astoni, the Grotto del Cane, the Lago di Agnano etc., but above all the Grotto di Pozzuoli and Virgil’s grave. The Grotto di Pozzuoli is like our Neutor except that it took us 8 minutes to drive through it as it is 344 cannas long.
Like other letters from the family’s tours, this one tells only part of the story: what Leopold wrote was intended primarily to give his correspondents (in this case his wife and daughter, Nannerl, who had remained in Salzburg) only a brief idea of what they were up to. The letters were aides-mémoires for fuller descriptions to follow on their return home, descriptions that would have included not only an account of details too lengthy to write about in his letters, but also engravings and other physical objects given to or purchased by Leopold while on tour.1
Leopold’s correspondents could, however, share at least some of the adventure. In a letter written at Verona on 7 January 1770, Leopold mentions ‘Comte Justi, who has a beautiful garden and an art gallery. You may be able to find them in Keyssler’s accounts of his travels.’ And from Rome on 14 April he wrote to his wife and daughter: ‘Pleased though I am that the two of you didn`t come with us on this trip, I`m sorry that you`re not able to see all the towns and cities of Italy, but especially Rome. It`s unnecessary, indeed impossible, to describe it in only a few words. Once again I advise you to read Keyssler’s account in his travels.’ Johann Georg Keyssler’s Neueste Reisen durch Deutschland, Böhmen, Ungarn, die Schweiz, Italien und Lothringen (first published at Hannover, 1740-1741), a highly-regarded mid-eighteenth-century travelogue, was apparently Leopold’s chief guide to Italy: it not only prepared him and Wolfgang for their travels but also allowed Mozart’s mother and sister to share in their adventures, at least at a distance, until Wolfgang and his father returned to Salzburg with their souvenirs, engravings and stories.
Johann Georg Keyssler, Neueste Reisen (Hannover, 1751), frontispiece and title page
The following extracts from the English-language edition of Keyssler, Travels through Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and Lorrain. Giving a True and Just Description of the Present State of those Countries; their Natural, Literary, and Political History; Manners, Laws, Commerce, Manufactures, Paintings, Scultpture, Architecture, Coins, Antiquities, Curiosities of Art and Nature, &c. (London, 1760), describe sites of interest around the Bay of Naples from Pozzuoli and Baiae to the tip of the peninsula at Miseno, and then back towards Naples. Keyssler describes two routes from Chiaia to Pozzuoli: one inland via Lago di Agnano, the other along the coast to Lago d’Averno; from Pozzuoli the route then goes to Arco Felice and Cuma, down to Baiae, and on to Miseno. The return to Naples is via Lago d’Averno and Lago di Lucino.2 It is clear from Leopold’s letter that he took yet a different route, traveling by boat from Pozzuoli to Baiae. Nevertheless, almost all of the sites mentioned by Leopold are described by Keyssler. The images are drawn chiefly from engravings by Pietro Fabris originally published in William Hamilton’s Campi Phlegraei: Observations on the Volcanoes of the Two Sicilies (Naples, 1776), and from Filippo Morghen, Gabinetto di tutte le più interessanti vedute degli antichi monumenti esistenti in Pozzuolo, Cuma e Baja e luoghi circonvicini, con la giunta della pianta topografica della città di Napoli, pianta litorale de’comuni del regno di Napoli fino a Pesto, pianta del creatore tra Napoli, e Cuma, con l’indicazione di tutte le vedute, ed in fine l’interressante veduta del Tempio di Santa Maria Maggiore nella città di Nocera dei Pagani espresso in n° XXXXV rami ed elegantemente incise dal celebre Filippo Morghen e disegnate da valenti professori (Naples, 1803).
Of the Antiquities and natural Curiosities near the City of Naples towards Puzzuolo, Baiæ, Cuma, Miseno, &c.
Chiaia to Pozzuoli: inland route via Lago di AgnanoMonte di Posillipo: Ancient mausoleum, Virgil’s Tomb: A Foreigner who is desirous of reaping instruction and advantage from his travels in Italy, should not neglect spending some days in visiting the country about Puzzuolo, Cuma, &c. In going from the suburbs of Chiaja to the Grotto del Monte di Posilipo, &c. on an eminence to the left, in a garden, at present in the possession of Don Paolo Ruffo,3 are to [be] seen the ruins of an ancient mausoleum. It was originally built in the form of a pyramid; but the lower part, which is all that now remains of it, is not unlike a large oven. The way to it is not to be found without a guide; and on the side towards the cave of Pausilypo it is so narrow, and runs along such a high precipice, that it is something dangerous to person subject to dizziness. This ancient ruin generally passes for the monument of the poet Virgil; but without any sufficient grounds for such a conjecture.4 In the wall within it are ten small niches or cavities, apparently designed for urns. According to Alphonso de Heredia, late bishop of Ariano,5 the marble urn, in which Virgil’s ashes had been deposited, stood here on nine small marble pillars, of which, at present, there is not the least appearance; and what became of such a remarkable piece of antiquity is also a great mystery. . . In going by water from Naples to Puzzuolo, not far from Cape Pausilypo one passes by a dome or cupola hewn out of rock, supposed to be the remains of a temple of Venus, though vulgarly, but for what reason I know not, called la Scuola di Virgilio. . .
- For an account of Mozart and souvenirs, click here.
- These extracts from Keyssler reproduce the orthography of the original, which is neither internally consistent with respect to place names nor identical to the ways Leopold Mozart reproduces them. Their identification is nevertheless clear. Italics and boldface headings are editorial additions to clarify the routes and specific places described. For images of engravings of Naples and its surroundings that were collected by Leopold Mozart, including several of the sites described by Keyssler, click here.
- Don Paolo Ruffo, duke of Baranello (Bagnara Calabra, 19 February 1660-Portici, 15 June 1733). See Giuseppe Caridi, I Ruffo di Calabria: secoli XIII-XIX (Falzea, 1999).
- Virgil’s tomb, a Roman burial vault said to be the grave of the poet Virgil (15 October 70 BC – 21 September 19 BC), is located at the entrance to a Roman tunnel known as the grotta vecchia or cripta napoletana that was built during the reign of Augustus (63 BC-19 August 14 AD, emperor from 27 BC) to connect Naples and Pozzuoli.
- Alfonso Herrera, O.S.A. (?-?), Bishop of Gallipoli from 30 July 1576 and Bishop of Ariano from 25 February 1585. He died on 20 December 1602.
