Beschreibung:

Trattato del Terremoto, on the origin of earthquakes, in Italian, manuscript on paper [Italy, eighteenth century (probably after 1755)] 7 leaves, complete, collation: i4, ii3 (central leaf a singleton inserted to complete text, last leaf blank), written in single column of 38 lines aligned on outer edge of page, title on first page in larger version of same, the gatherings tacketed together with thread at midpoint and never in a binding, small spots and stains, else good condition, 300 by 210mm. A rare subject to be addressed in manuscript, and from the dawn of modern seismology. Here the anonymous author sets out a lengthy description of earthquakes, with some accurate descriptions of volcanic eruptions and the like. He defines these as caused by the forces of elastic fluid and vapours within the earth, rejecting any part of the element of fire in this, and thus setting himself against the seventeenth-century consensus view put forward by Athanasius Kircher that the movement of fire within underground channels caused this phenomenon. Comment is then made on cannonballs within his rejection of the views of Nicholas Lemery (d. 1715) that underground chemical explosions were the cause. Interest in the subject exploded after the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1 November 1755, which destroyed 85% of buildings in that city, and was felt as far away as Finland and North Africa, with tsunamis recorded in Cornwall and across the Atlantic in Barbardos and coastal Brazil. However, it was not until the 1850s when actual experimentation began with the work of Robert Mallet that the science of seismology was born and so named.