Our local science center is currently hosting the travelling exhibit "Pompeii: The Exhibition." I plan on viewing the exhibition tomorrow. I visited Pompeii myself on a rainy day back in 2006, along with the "secret cabinet" at the Museum of Naples, and I look forward to viewing the various artifacts. In anticipation, I decided to look up Pompeii in my various encyclopedia sets. The general caveat that will always accompany blog posts of this nature: the information stated below is quoted from these old reference works for entertainment purposes only; accuracy has not been verified. Always double-check information before citing. Books are fallible.

The 1919 World Book (volume 8, pages 4748-4749) has a rather short article on the subject of Pompeii; the large drawing of the forum (p. 4749) takes up nearly as much space as the text. "For over fifteen centuries after the eruption, the site of the buried cities was unknown. Pompeii lay at the mouth of the River Sarnus, near the Bay of Naples, but the great disaster so changed the geography of the region — turning the river back from its course and raising the sea beach — that men had no way of discovering the site. In fact, for a long time its very name was almost forgotten. Then, by a happy accident, interest in the buried cities was revived. In 1748 a peasant who was sinking a well in that locality found some statues and other antiquities, and this led to extensive excavations in the region" (4749). The entry does not mention specifically how the residents of Pompeii perished nor does it mention their remains, focusing instead on the makeup of the city. The 1958 World Book (volume 13, pages 6482-6484) generally copies the same text, but replaces the drawing with a lot of B&W photographs - it features more pictures of Pompeii and its artifacts than any of the other reference works I looked at. One interesting line it does add on to the original entry is a note that a description of the eruption (since the entry, like the 1919 version, does not itself go into the sordid details) can be found in a fictional account: "Lord Lytton gives a description of the tragedy in his novel The Last Days of Pompeii" (6484).

The 1992 World Book (volume 15, pages 656-658) features a new text, written in very simple language. It features three color photographs in the entry. This version now includes the details lacking from the previous World Books; rather than just state that the volcano erupted and the buildings were buried, the human element is brought in, beginning with Pliny the Younger's account: "The Roman writer Pliny the Younger told in a letter how he led his mother to safety through the fumes and falling stones. His uncle, the writer Pliny the Elder, commanded a fleet that rescued some people. He landed to view the eruption and died on the shore" (657). This is followed by a description of what happened to unlucky citizens of Pompeii and the archaeological significance of their mode of death: "Some of the victims were trapped in their homes and killed by hot ashes. Others breathed the poisonous fumes and died as they fled. Archaeologists find the shells (molds) of the bodies preserved in the hardened ash. By carefully pouring plaster into the shells, they can make detailed copies of the individuals, even to the expressions of agony on their faces" (657). One of the photo captions states that at this time, three-fourths of Pompeii had been excavated (658); in the previous encyclopedia editions, only half had been uncovered.

The 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 22, pages 50 to 56) features a city map on page 52, showing the extent to which the city had been excavated at the time. The article devotes most of its space to the history of the city before the volcanic eruption and to the physical description of the city at the time, as the archaeological at the time viewed it. There are some interesting anecdotes given, such as this one from Tacitus' Annals: "In A.D. 59 a tumult took place in the amphitheatre between the citizens and visitors from the nieghbouring colony of Nuceria. Many were killed and wounded on both sides. The Pompeians were punished for this violent outbreak by the prohibition of all theatrical exhibitions for ten years (Tacitus, Ann.. xiv. 17). A characteristic, though rude, painting found on the walls of one of the houses gives a representation of this event" (50). One nice feature of this entry is that it links as much historical data as it can back to Roman sources; Tacitus is cited numerous times, as is Cicero ("whose letters abound with allusions to his Pompeian villa" 50), Seneca, and Pliny.

As mentioned, the entry focuses on the description of the city as can be gleamed from the archaeological record. The main streets, for instance, "are uniformly paved with large polygonal blocks of hard basaltic lava, fitted very closely together, though now in many cases marked with deep ruts from the passage of vehicles in ancient times. They are also in all cases bordered by raised footways on both sides, paved in a similar manner; and for the convenience of foot-passengers, which was evidently a more important consideration than the obstacle which the arrangement presented to the passage of vehicles, which indeed were probably only allowed for goods traffic, these are connected from place to place by stepping-stones raised above the level of the carriage-way" (51). Numerous examples of graffiti are mentioned, the first in a footnote on the amphitheatres: "The interest taken by the Pompeians in the sports of the amphitheatre is shown by the contents of the numerous painted and scratched inscriptions relating to them which have been found in Pompeii — notices of combats, laudatory inscriptions, including even references to the admiration which gladiators won from the fair sex, &c." (53). These are mentioned again towards the end of the article: "Still more curious, and almost peculiar to Pompeii, are the numerous writings painted upon the walls, which have generally a semi-public character, such as recommendations of candidates for municipal offices, advertisements, &c., and the scratched inscriptions (graffiti), which are generally the mere expression of individual impulse and feeling, frequently amatory, and not uncommonly conveyed in rude and imperfect verses" (56). Other facts about the residences unearthed include notes on climate control ("elaborate precautions were taken against heat, but none against cold, which was patiently endured" 54) and on the tools and artifacts found: "Another curious discovery was that of the abode of a sculptor, containing his tools, as well as blocks of marble and half-finished statues. The number of utensils of various kinds found in the houses and shops is almost endless, and, as these are in most cases of bronze, they are generally in perfect preservation" (54).

The 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica article states that the population of Pompeii was probably around 20,000 (51); this is the figure given by all of my reference works except for one — the 1984 Brockhaus (volume 17, pages 165-165) estimates the population to be between 12,000 and 15,000 residents. The Britannica estimates that 10% of that population perished in the volcanic eruption, based on "the number of skeletons discovered" (51). Unlike the World Book, the Britannica makes no qualms of mentioning the bodies, even if the cause of death is not strictly given: "Almost all the skeletons and remains of bodies found in the city were discovered in similar situations, in cellars or underground apartments — those who had sought refuge in flight having apparently for the most part escaped from destruction, or having perished under circumstances where their bodies were easily recovered by the survivors. According to Cassius Dio, a large number of the inahbitants were assembled in the theatre at the time of the catastrophe, but no bodies have been found there, and they were probably sought for and removed shortly afterwards. Of late years it has been found possible in many cases to take casts of the bodies found — a complete mould having been formed around them by the fine white ashes, partially consolidated by water" (55).

The 1965 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 18, pages 201-205) features an updated map of the city, but generally quotes verbatim the 1910 article. It does, however, make one correction regarding the design of the houses. The 1910 article has surmised that the walls facing the street were very plain (particularly in contrast to the inner courtyards), but the 1965 version gives a correction: "The careful investigation in recent years of the buildings in the eastern portion of the Strada dell' Abbondanza has shown that previous conceptions of the appearance of the exterior of the houses were entirely erroneous. The upper stories were diversified by balconies, open loggias, colonnades, etc., while the lower portions of the façades were painted, often with scenes of considerable interest" (202). The 1997 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 9, pages 590-592), on the other hand, has a completely rewritten article, which is fairly lengthy for a Micropædia article, with an (again) updated map and a single black-and-white photograph. This entry is particularly nice for the attention it gives to the history of the lengthy archaeological excavation: "Early digging was haphazard and often irresponsible; excavators were primarily treasure seekers, hunting for imposing buildings or museum objects. Haphazard digging was brought to a stop in 1860, when the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli became director of the excavations. [...] Fiorelli also developed the technique of making casts of bodies by pouring cement into the hollows formed in the volcanic ash when the bodies disintegrated" (591). Similarly, there are nice notes on the cultural impact of the rediscovery of Pompeii: "The laudatory pronouncements of the eminent German classicist Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who made his first trip to Naples in 1755, and the etchings of Giambattista Piranesi did much to popularize the excavations. Naples, Pompeii, and Herculaneum became important stops on the European Grand Tour made by English visitors" (591).

Briefly returning to the 1984 Brockhaus: this was the only encyclopedia to directly mention the pornographic, which it includes in a list of the different types of graffiti found: "Wandinschriften geben Auskunft über Begebenheiten des tägl. Lebens: Geschäftsanzeigen, Wahlagitationen, Gladiatorenscherze, Liebesgeständnisse sowie pornograph. Darstellungen" (Wall inscriptions provide information about everyday life: job postings, campaign slogans, gladiator jokes, love confessions and even pornographic depictions, 165). It also gives an exact date of the eruption: August 24, 79. I shall mention one final encyclopedia, the 1993 New Standard Encyclopedia (volume 13, pages 471-473), which features very vivid, almost literary descriptions of the demise of the residents: "Out of the great, dark cloud that shot up from the mountain, masses of scorching pumice fragments, some of them as large as three inches (7.6 cm) across, rained down on Pompeii. Deadly sulfurous gases emitted by the hot material killed many persons as they ran through the streets, and killed some who fled to their cellars or huddled in inner rooms to escape the falling rock. Others waited until the doorways of their homes were blocked, then escaped from second-story windows, only to fall in the continuing lethal deluge. When 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 m) of the pumice covered the city a fine ash moistened by steam began to fall. Breathing in this smothering substance, the people who had survived so far but had not yet escaped out to sea were suffocated" (472). This encyclopedia, in contrast to the others, claims that nearly three-fourths of the population perished in the eruption. It also, like the 1997 Encyclopædia Britannica, focuses on the cultural impacts the archaeological discovery of Pompeii caused: "Antiquities recovered from Pompeii were carried off to museums, and created a trend toward neoclassic design that swept the art world. [...] A romantic novel, The Last Days of Pompeii (1834) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, captured the public imagination and made the lost city familiar to all" (473).

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Update: The exhibit (Pompeii: The Exhibition) was great. It first led you through multiple galleries meant to give an impression of everyday life in the city. Then there was a "4D" show you had to pass through representing the eruption, followed by a final gallery consisting of real casts of victims. The exhibit quoted the same date as the Brockhaus: August 24, 79. It said the city had more inhabitants, though.