William Hamilton

The title of this article is ambiguous. Additional people with similar names are listed under William Hamilton (disambiguation) .

Sir William Douglas Hamilton

Sir William Douglas Hamilton

Sir William Douglas Hamilton (born December 13, 1730 in Henley-on-Thames , † April 6, 1803 in London ) was a Scottish diplomat , art collector and volcanologist .

Life

Hamilton was the fourth son of Lord Archibald Hamilton (1673-1754) and grandson of the 3rd Duchess of Hamilton . As is usual for many sons of his class, William Hamilton entered the British Army very early and served there from 1747 to 1758. He left the army because of his marriage to Catherine Barlow, daughter of Member of Parliament Hugh Barlow. The marriage remained childless. Catherine died on August 25, 1782.

From 1764 to 1799, Hamilton served as a British diplomat at the court of the Kingdom of Naples . He used this time, among other things, to investigate local volcanic activities and earthquakes. He reported on his research as a corresponding member of the Royal Society in London and also wrote a book on the Roman city of Pompeii , on Etruscan, Roman and Greek antiquities and on Vesuvius . A large part of his Greek vases, which he had previously created by Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville in the Collection Of Etruscan, Greek And Roman Antiquities From The Cabinet Of The Honble. Wm. Hamilton published and thus triggered an antique boom, Hamilton sold in 1772 to the British Museum in London. He later started a second collection, which was also sold to the British Museum.

In January 1772 he was inducted into the Order of the Bath as a Knight Companion .

For the Weimar Classicism , Hamilton is important insofar as he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Karl Philipp Moritz in Rome and Naples and, because of his archaeological expertise, exerted a great influence on their image of Italy. In 1765, Prince Leopold III learned . von Anhalt-Dessau know him on his Grand Tour ; the encounter had a particular influence on the design of the Stein Island in Wörlitzer Park , where Prince Leopold had a "Villa Hamilton" built in addition to a replica of Vesuvius .

In 1786 William Hamilton met Emma Lyon , who had been the mistress of one of his nephews. Hamilton was fascinated by this woman who made a living from erotic dances, among other things. Goethe reported on his visits to Hamilton and Emma's performances on the Italian trip . On September 6, 1791, Hamilton married the 26-year-old, which caused a major scandal at the time. Emma Hamilton later became the lover of Horatio Nelson .

In 1792, Hamilton was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Fonts

• Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other Volcanos. Cadell, London 1772; 2nd edition 1773 ( digitized version ); New edition 1774 ( digitized version ).
  • Observations over Vesuvius, Aetna and other volcanoes. In a series of letters to the Royal Society of Science. In addition to new, explanatory comments by the author. Haude and Spener, Berlin 1773 ( digitized version ).
• Campi Phlegræi. Observations on the Volcanoes of the Two Sicilies, as they have been communicated to the Royal Society of London. = Campi Phlegræi. Observations on the volcans des Deux Siciles, telles qu'elles ont été communiquieés à la Societé Royale de Londres. sn, Naples 1776-1779; Reprint: Banco di Napoli, Naples 1985.
• Report on the current state of Vesuvius and description of a trip to the province of Abruzzo and the island of Ponza. Read to the Royal Society of London on May 4th, 1786. Waltherische Hofbuchhandlung, Dresden 1787 ( urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10051991-9 digitized version ; digitized version of a review ).

literature

• Hamilton, Sir William . [diplomatist] . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 12 : Gichtel - harmonium . London 1910, p. 888 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
• Susan Sontag : The lover of the volcano. Novel. Hanser, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-446-16017-5 .
• Ian Jenkins, Kim Sloan: Vases & Volcanoes. Sir William Hamilton and his collection. British Museum Press, London 1996, ISBN 0-7141-1766-8 .
• Lucilla Burn (Ed.): Sir William Hamilton, collector and connoisseur. (= Journal of the History of Collections 9, 2). Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1997.
• John A. Davis, Giovanni Capuano (Eds.): The Hamilton letters. The Naples dispatches of Sir William Hamilton. Tauris, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-84511-611-8 .

Web links

Commons : William Hamilton  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• William Hamilton . Propylaeum
• Book of the Month: Sir William Hamilton “Campi Phlegraei”, Naples: 1776 (Glasgow, University Library, Ms. Hunterian Bm.1.1-2)

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 171.
2. ↑ Anhalt800.de ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .