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The upper-left rotum in the VMS “map” is often called a “volcano”\u2014a handy term that most people intuitively comprehend even if we don’t know what the drawing represents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Volcanic eruptions have long been memorialized in drawings and chronicles, including a Pseudo-Dionysius description from the 6th century:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such was the violent and harsh disaster, which was sent from heaven, that fire alight and consumed those who had escaped from the terrible vehemence of the cataclysm of the earthquake and the collapse: the sparks flew and set fire to everything on which they settled. The earth itself from below, from within the soil, surged, seethed and burned everything which was there. Thus the foundations as well, together with all the storeys above them, were lifted up, heaved up and down and burst apart, collapsed, fell and burned with fire\u2026 In the end no house or church or building of any kind remained, not even the garden fences, which had not been torn asunder or damaged, or had not disintegrated and fallen. The rest burned, crumbled away and became like an extended putrefaction.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It’s possible volcanic eruptions were depicted in ancient cave paintings, but this particular cataclysm was not especially common in medieval art, which makes it difficult to identify illustrative traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This clip is from a 1580 Portolan map (BSB Cod.icon.137) and might look like a volcano at first glance…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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but it actually represents the source of the Nile River:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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which I thought was interesting because there is speculation about whether the wavy shapes inside the VMS “volcano” might represent flames, water, or something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This clip from 1587 is drawn in a similar way (except that the poof is red instead of blue) and represents a volcano in Sicily (in fact volcanic eruptions changed the coastline so dramatically, it’s hard to know what it looked like in the Middle Ages):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In one version of De Balneis by Petrus de Ebulo (BNF Latin 8161), bathers enjoy the healing waters at the base of a volcano:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Note the scalloped pattern around the rim of the archway.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another version of De Balneis (Angelica) the volcanic activity is more explicit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In yet another version of De Balneis (Edinburgh), the fumes are rising on the far right, and radiating as heat (and possibly also as fumes) toward the bathers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is a more detailed history of the baths here<\/a> (which were eventually destroyed by volcanic eruptions):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1585, depictions of volcanic eruptions were more naturalistic, as in Ortelius’s map of Mt. Hekla erupting in Iceland:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the significant thermal sources at Pozzuoli was known as The Solfatar, which was commemorated in a fresco in Rome in the early 1600s:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baratta and Perrey (1680) recorded volcanic activity in Naples in the following engraving, at the site of the former Pozzuoli baths and the island of Nisida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the past, I have suggested Nisida as a possible source for the top-right VMS rotum. I have numerous ideas for this rotum, but the island of Nisida is on my Top-5 list because it matches several of the topological features of the VMS “map”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nisida is shaped like a horseshoe, with a “bowl” of seawater facing deeper water, and may have been connected to the mainland by a stone jetty as it is today. Sea levels were lower in the early Middle Ages and apparently rose again a couple of centuries before the eruption of Monte Nuovo in 1538.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a 1776 view of the Nisida crater, which formed a small harbor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Note in the Baratta\/Perrey engraving that there might be a lighthouse on one or more of the outcroppings. Could Rotum6 be an aerial view of a lighthouse with light streaming out from a central column and sea foam lapping against the rocks at the base?:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A 19th-century engraving shows a partly-submerged castle in shallow water near Nisida (perhaps connected to the island by a jetty?). There are also grottoes in the area (the VMS has a number of grotto-like images):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Below is a contemporary view of Nisida from the mainland, showing the white-stone jetty. Note the vantage point for the photo is quite high (there are escarpments in the VMS drawing between Rotum 2 and 3 that might correspond to cliffs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a volcanically active area with many hilly craters and thermal vents. The horseshoe part of Nisida juts out to sea and is battered by rougher water when it’s stormy. There are castle ruins and traces of an old wall in the aerial photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n