Pompeii, Its Life and Art — Inside the Classic

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Authors: Mau, August, 1840-1909, Kelsey, Francis W. (Francis Willey), 1858-1927 [Translator] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2013 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Pompeii (Extinct city) Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

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This editorial note examines how Mau's opening, middle, and later excerpts guide a first reading of Pompeii, Its Life and Art, focusing on the author's method of interpreting ruins without historical narratives, his detailed architectural analysis, and the shift from general principles to specific house studies.

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POMPEII ITS LIFE AND ART

GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE IN ROME

Translated into English BY FRANCIS W. KELSEY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

_WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS_

NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED

New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1902

_All rights reserved_

First Edition, October, 1899. New Revised Edition, with additions, November, 1902.

Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

For twenty-five years Professor Mau has devoted himself to the study of Pompeii, spending his summers among the ruins and his winters in Rome, working up the new material. He holds a unique place among the scholars who have given attention to Pompeian antiquities, and his contributions to the literature of the subject have been numerous in both German and Italian. The present volume, however, is not a translation of one previously issued, but a new work first published in English, the liberality of the publishers having made it possible to secure assistance for the preparation of certain restorations and other drawings which Professor Mau desired to have made as illustrating his interpretation of the ruins.

In one respect there is an essential difference between the remains of Pompeii and those of the large and famous cities of antiquity, as Rome or Athens, which have associated with them the familiar names of historical characters. Mars' Hill is clothed with human interest, if for no other reason, because of its relation to the work of the Apostle Paul; while the Roman Forum and the Palatine, barren as they seem to-day, teem with life as there rise before the mind's eye the scenes presented in the pages of classical writers. But the Campanian city played an unimportant part in contemporary history; the name of not a single great Pompeian is recorded. The ruins, deprived of the interest arising from historical associations, must be interpreted with little help from literary sources, and repeopled with aggregate rather than individual life.

A few Pompeians, whose features have survived in herms or statues and whose names are known from the inscriptions, seem near to us,--such are Caecilius Jucundus and the generous priestess Eumachia; but the characters most commonly associated with the city are those of fiction. Here, in a greater degree than in most places, the work of reconstruction involves the handling of countless bits of evidence, which, when viewed by themselves, often seem too minute to be of importance; the blending of these into a complete and faithful picture is a task of infinite painstaking, the difficulty of which will best be appreciated by one who has worked in this field.

It was at first proposed to place at the end of the book a series of bibliographical notes on the different chapters, giving references to the more important treatises and articles dealing with the matters presented. But on fuller consideration it seemed unnecessary thus to add to the bulk of the volume; those who are interested in the study of a particular building or aspect of Pompeian culture will naturally turn to the _Pompeianarum antiquitatum historia_, the reports in the _Notizie degli Scavi_, the reports and articles by Professor Mau in the Roman _Mittheilungen_ of the German Archaeological Institute, the Overbeck-Mau _Pompeji_, the Studies by Mau and by Nissen, the commemorative volume issued in 1879 under the title _Pompei e la regione sotterrata dal Vesuvio_, the catalogues of the paintings by Helbig and Sogliano, together with Mau's _Geschichte der decorativen Wandmalerei in Pompeji_, H. von Rohden's _Terracotten von Pompeji_, and the older illustrated works, as well as the beautiful volume, _Pompeji vor der Zerstoerung_, published in 1897 by Weichardt.

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August Mau's Pompeii, Its Life and Art opens with a striking admission: the Campanian city played an unimportant part in contemporary history, and the name of not a single great Pompeian is recorded. This absence of historical associations, Mau argues, forces the interpreter to rely on the ruins themselves, repeopling them with aggregate rather than individual life. The preface thus establishes a methodological challenge that shapes the entire work: how to reconstruct daily existence from walls, pavements, and everyday objects. Mau's solution is a meticulous, room-by-room analysis grounded in architectural evidence, as seen in his treatment of the House of the Surgeon, where he traces the evolution of the Italic house plan through changes in wall construction, room dimensions, and later additions. The reader is immediately drawn into a detective-like process of reading material remains.

Reading the Ruins Without a Narrative

Mau's preface explicitly contrasts Pompeii with Rome or Athens, where familiar historical names and literary sources animate the ruins. In Pompeii, he notes, the ruins must be interpreted with little help from literary sources. This constraint becomes a strength: the book trains the reader to observe structural details—such as the use of Sarno limestone blocks versus limestone framework—as primary evidence. For instance, in describing the House of the Surgeon, Mau points out that the tablinum has already displaced the recess for the bed opposite the front door, indicating a later stage in the native house's development. He also notes that the rooms are measured according to the Oscan standard, with the atrium being about 30 by 35 Oscan feet. These observations ground the reader in a specific, non-textual mode of historical reasoning.

Architectural Layers and Temporal Depth

A central feature of Mau's method is his attention to chronological layers within a single structure. In the House of the Surgeon, he distinguishes between the original core—built before 200 B.C.—and later additions, such as the shop at the right and the back room, which were added later, along with the kitchen and slave quarters. He even speculates that these later rooms may have replaced a garden with an outside kitchen, deducing this from the existence of a door between rooms 6' and 3 that was later walled up, and the unbroken party wall on that side. This kind of architectural stratigraphy allows Mau to reconstruct the building's evolution over centuries, offering the reader a dynamic view of domestic space rather than a static snapshot.

Paintings as Windows into Domestic Life

While Mau emphasizes structural analysis, he also uses wall paintings to suggest the human activities that once filled these spaces. In the House of the Surgeon, he describes a room with a large window opening on the garden, where a panel painting shows a man sitting with a writing tablet, opposite two girls, one holding a roll of papyrus. Another panel, transferred to the Naples Museum, depicts a young woman painting a herm of Dionysus while a Cupid holds the unfinished picture. Mau speculates that this pleasant apartment may have been the boudoir of a favorite daughter who busied herself with painting and verse. Such passages, though cautious, offer the reader a rare glimpse of individual life, counterbalancing the aggregate approach announced in the preface.

From General Principles to Specific Houses

The excerpts show a clear progression from Mau's introductory methodological remarks to detailed case studies. After establishing the interpretive framework in the preface, the book moves to specific houses, such as the House of the Surgeon and the House of Sallust. The latter, Mau notes, received its name from an election notice painted on the outside recommending Gaius Sallustius for a municipal office. This house, like the first, lacks a peristyle and follows a plan closely resembling the House of the Surgeon. By presenting multiple examples, Mau allows the reader to compare and contrast, building a broader understanding of Pompeian domestic architecture. The reader is encouraged to see each house as a variation on a theme, with its own history and adaptations.

As you read Pompeii, Its Life and Art, pay close attention to Mau's use of architectural terminology and his habit of noting later modifications to original structures. The book rewards a slow, careful reading that follows the author's own method: moving from the general to the particular, from the street to the interior, and from the structural to the decorative. The illustrations and plans are integral to this process, so refer to them often. By the end, you will have gained not just knowledge of Pompeii, but a way of seeing ancient ruins as layered documents of human life.

Mau’s careful hands reading Pompeii’s silent walls—stone by stone—reminds me of another patient voice, one that listens to the earth’s own tremors beneath our feet. There is a shared tenderness in tracing what remains after violence, in learning the language of cracks and tilts. For decades, I’ve kept them side by side on my shelf. Earthquakes and other earth movements — A Closer Reading feels like a quiet echo, a deeper breath between the same ruined lines.