General books

Possibly the best introduction to the overall history of the site is Zanker (1998). This is available in English translation, contains a large number of illustrations, and presents some interesting analyses of the development of the town over time. For up-to-date guidebooks, two Italian archaeological guides are the most comprehensive: de Vos and de Vos (1982) and La Rocca et al. (1994). There is no equivalent in English, although the relevant section in the Blue Guide to Southern Italy (Blanchard 1990) is a guide of manageable proportions (albeit outdated in parts) for accompanying a visit to the site. Cooley (2003) explores the political and cultural context of the site’s excavation, and presents recent vulcanological research for a nonspecialist readership. For thoughtful studies of housing and town planning, see Wallace-Hadrill (1994) and Laurence (1994).

We have limited our discussion and illustration of artefacts relevant to the study of Pompeii. Some of the outstanding artefacts found at Pompeii, as well as more mundane ones, are often made available to viewers outside the site and museum storerooms via exhibition catalogues, such as Ward-Perkins and Claridge (1976). There is also much useful material in a catalogue of Naples Museum: De Caro (1996).

An excellent series of pamphlets, available in English translation, was produced by the Soprintendenza to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the excavations. D’Ambrosio (1998b) provides a succinct introduction to the site’s early excavation; for visitors to the site who wish to escape from the crowds in the town, a peaceful walk has been designed around the town’s perimeter, illustrated by Ciarallo and De Carolis (1998b); Berry (1998) presents the latest research on Pompeii’s early history. A series of short thematic picture books has also begun to be published (Pompei — Guide tematiche), including De Carolis (2000) and d’Ambrosio (2001).

‘Coffee-table’ books exist seemingly by their hundreds, often with fantastic photography, but with rather poor quality captions and text. One of the best and most up-to-date of these is Nappo (1998).

If hunting for information about a particular topic, turn to the Nova bibliotheca pompeiana (Garcia y Garcia 1998), which provides an exhaustive list of everything ever published about Pompeii, with 14,596 entries in all. It contains useful indexes by topography and theme.