a town in Italy, in the dominions of the king of Naples and Sicily, or, as he is more commonly called, the king of the Two Sicilies. It is an episcopal city, but might with greater propriety be styled a cluster of villages; its several parts being extended along the foot of the mountains, from the Città Sotana, or low town; and the bishop's palace, together with some convents embowered in cypres groves, cover the peak of a single hill in a very picturesque manner, and compose the Città Sopra.

Nocera (A), it is reported, contains near 30,000 inhabitants; they are dispersed in forty patches of habitation. Their houses are constructed of two kinds of stone: the common walls are built with yellow tufa dug out of the hills that lie about a mile to the east of the town; which stone seems unquestionably to have been formed by a consolidation of substances thrown out of Vesuvius, because, on opening these quarries, the workmen have frequently discovered tombs, vases, and coins locked up in the body of the stony stratum. The eaves of their doors and windows are made of a black stone drawn from the hill of Fiano, two miles to the north: it lies eight feet below the surface, in a bed or vein 140 feet thick, resting upon a base of sand. This seems evidently to be a stream of lava congealed.

Nocera is a place of very considerable antiquity: in the 13th century it was called de Pagani, to distinguish it from a city in Umbria of a similar name; this addition was in allusion to a colony of Saracens which Frederick of Swabia brought from Sicily, and settled here, that they might be out of the way of their dangerous connexions with Africa: hence Nocera has often been confounded with Lucera by the negligent or ignorant chroniclers of the succeeding ages. The most remarkable event that occurs in its history is the siege of its castle, A.D. 1381. E. Long, 12. 49. N. Lat. 43. 1.

Terra NOCERIANA, Earth of Nocera, in the Materia Medica, a species of bole, remarkably heavy, of a grayish-white colour, of an infipid taste, and generally with some particles in it which grit between the teeth. It is much esteemed by the Italians as a remedy for venomous bites, and in fevers; but, excepting as an absorbent and astringent, no dependence is to be had on it.