Sicilia piangente su le rovine delle sue più belle città: story and data from the printed Reports of the 1693 Val di Noto earthquake

Abstract

The paper aims to analize printed reports describing the earthquake that destroyed many cities in eastern Sicily in January 1693. In particular, this kind of printing production, called stampe d’occasione, chronicle events deemed important to the local community. These printed books also had a divulgative function of the contemporary facts, even dramatic, that involved the territory. The editions currently surveyed are present in very few copies, in most cases preserved in non-Sicilian libraries and bound inside miscellaneous volumes.

Keywords

• earthquake
• sicily
• occasional prints