Pompeii: The History, Life and Art of the Buried City by Marisa Ranieri Panetta

Pompeii: The History, Life and Art of the Buried City Reviews

• 
  Overbooked ✎

  3.5 stars. The beast feature of this book for me were the photographs, which were truly spectacular.
• 
  Pete daPixie

  A neighbour of mine, upon hearing of my holiday destination, passed this book across for me, just to look at the pictures. I also had to read cover to cover. 'Pompeii-The History, Life & Art of the Buried City' is over four hundred luscious pages produced with the collaboration of the Archaeological Superintendency of Pompeii and the Superintendency for Archaeological Heritage of Naples and Caserta.
  My neighbour also informed me that this book is published by White Star Publishers, provided for passengers on cruise ships to browse before going ashore at Naples. This book is much too good just for the cruise crowd, and if like me, one of your relatives sailed on that maiden voyage, then all is now forgiven.
  There are over a dozen contributors to this monster. Archaeologists, Professors of Roman history, Directors of excavation, heads of research laboratories, Professors of Antiquities, all Italian and all working in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Naples. Suffice to say, all subjects are covered, too numerous to list, in expert detail. Artifacts now kept in the Museum of Naples, the Boscoreale National Antiquarium and the archaeology of the Villas at Oplontis are also included. All the photographs by Araldo De Luca are just stunning. Each page is just short of A3 size and many photo plates open out into four page panoramas.
  If you are a lover of Roman history, or just an art lover, or just to impress the neighbours, here is one fantastic recommendation for one of the best coffee table books I've ever come across.
  
• 
  Shane

  This book reminded me of that famous line from "A Tale of Two Cities," reading it was the best of times and the worst of times.
  The pictures were spectacular. I loved them, and I can't wait to see them live and in person in a little more than a week as of this review's writing. The images came alive and made me feel as if the decorations were in my own house.
  On the other hand, the prose needs some work. It was translated from Italian, so maybe that's the reason for the plethora of typos and clunky phrasings, but still distracting. Also, I am no Pompeiian scholar, but I've read a few things about it and had some base knowledge. However, I felt some parts of this book one must have a doctorate in history to understand--far too technical and obtuse for a layman reader. In fairness, though, I did learn some quality things.
  
• 
  Elisha

  Aside from being an interesting read, this book was all about the photographs. Lots of beautiful, full page color pictures of the city and what is left of the buried city. Visually stunning.
• 
  Timons Esaias

  This is one of those books where subject matter trumps lesser issues. It's a beautiful coffee-table picture book of the artifacts and buildings in the Roman town buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD. Unlike many coffee table books, though, it has informative articles written by professional archeologists and curators, explaining what we know about the town, its history, and the region.
  
  It is fairly amazing what we can know, since we also have Pliny the Younger's first-hand testimony to the eruption, and can therefore attach specific dates and times to the geological remains, and the archeological remains. We know what certain people were doing on the day of the eruption, can see where a painter spilled lime during an earthquake, and can guess how long the painters were working on that house, that day. We know the plants and trees in their gardens, the food on their pantry shelves, the money they had in their safes, and hidden about their persons.
  
  We've also learned (both from Pompeii/Herculaneum and from Nero's Golden House in Rome) the history of interior painting styles. Should we also mention the literally thousands of graffiti and election posters and advertising billboards??? It's all rather amazing.
  
  I picked this book up at the "A Day in Pompeii" traveling exhibit, which we traveled to Cincinnati to see. It looked to be the main authoritative text of the exhibit, and I had leafed through it before, but finally took the time to read it cover to cover. I am very glad to have it on my shelf. Well, actually it's on the piano.
  
  There are flaws, however. The reproduction of the photographs is NOT one of the flaws. The pictures are lovely, and the variety of subjects is impressive. Of course one wants everything, but the number of artifacts is too huge for that. The problem with the book is the editing of the prose. There are numerous typos. Some of the articles don't have any paragraphing (though it seems clear paragraphs were intended), which makes for awkward reading. Some sentences were clearly mistranslated, some are missing a negative, or have an improper negative. For a book created with such care, this is annoying.
  
  But the book is, after all, wonderful. And the subject is fascinating. So five stars. Five.
• 
  Sam

  Absolutely beautiful pictures combined with detailed information about life in Pompeii; Will learn a lot reading and looking at this book; Numerous typos however, and some pictures are very small, making it hard to appreciate their detail
• 
  Julesmarie

  Fantastically beautiful book!
  
  The images in here are gorgeous, and more varied than any other book I've on Pompeii I've found. I used this book for maybe 85% of my lessons on Pompeii because it includes everything from maps, to photographs of the earliest excavations and excavators, to fold-out 4-pages images of some of the mosaics.
  
  All of the major buildings and areas have sections full of photos and images dedicated to them: the baths, the House of the Faun, the amphitheater, the bakery, and several private houses with well-preserved mosaic floors and frescoed walls.
  
  The text in each section is also interesting and just the right amount of informative to balance out the images without becoming too long or too dry.
• 
  Linda Harkins

  Excellent introduction before visiting Pompeii.
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  Jodi

  Fantastic read! Covered a lot of fascinating information. Lots of pictures to go along with all the information!
• 
  Bill Robson

  I have this book, it's big.
• 
  Monica

  Somebody wanna buy me this book?