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Corio reported as very strong in Milano, and then it grew to a damaging earthquake
in Cremona (Cavitelli, 1588) and from that in Postpischl (1985a) as Io 8 MCS,
Mm 5.2.
For Verona, on the opposite, Dalla Corte (1592-1594) added damage to the
events reported by coeval sources as not damaging ones. This is the case for the
events of 1334 (Io 8/9 MCS, Mm 5.5 in Postpischl, 1985a) and of 1410, (Io 9 MCS,
Mm 5.7 in Postpischl, 1985a), reported without mention of damage by chronicles
of Verona (Parisius de Cereta, 1117-1278 for the first one; Zagata, 15th cent., for
the second one); they became destructive events with collapse of buildings in Dalla
Corte (1592-1594) and, from there, in Postpischl (1985a) through Baratta (1901).
Both earthquakes were studied by ENEL (1985); for the event of 1410 they reduced
Io to 8, while in the case of 1334, despite the fact that Parisius de Cereta (1117-
1278) and Zagata (15th cent.) do not mention damage, ENEL (1985) assessed I 7/8
MCS at Verona, and Io accordingly.
2.4 Assessing Fake Quakes
As a typical result of this investigation phase through all Europe, several false earth-
quakes were detected also in this area, mostly related to the medieval time-window.
The hunt of the so-called “fake quakes” was very popular in that stage of historical
seismology, because rigorous methodologies and professional historical expertise
allowed to understand how, in many cases, previous compilers performed wrong
interpretations, duplicated events and built up imaginary events from landslides,
storms, etc. A pioneer work by Jean Vogt is found in his “Les tremblement de terre
en France” (1979), which contains a section devoted to “Problemes de methode”
where he clearly shows the need for a careful reading of the primary sources to
avoid mistakes and creation of “faux seismes”. Methodological aspects and paradig-
matic Italian case histories can be found in Guidoboni (1985), where the quoted case
of 1276-77 event is also discussed, Guidoboni and Ferrari (1989), Bellettati et al.
(1993), Albini and Vogt (1992), Castelli (1993), etc. Through an analysis of the
published sources for the Middle Ages, in his topic “Les seismes en Europe occiden-
tale de 394 a 1259” Alexandre (1990) identified 276 “false” European earthquakes,
resulting from careless interpretation of chronological and/or location wordings.
Alexandre's demolition of the myth of the earthquake of the year 1000 (Alexandre,
1991) is a milestone on the topic of fake or exaggerated earthquakes in Europe.
In the investigated area, the events of 1001 (Io 8-9 MCS, Mm 5.5 in Postpischl,
1985a) and 1298 (Io 8 MCS, Mm 5.2), located near Verona, were proved as fake by
ENEL (1985). The supporting information derived from Dalla Corte (1592-1594),
who extended to his city the effects of known earthquakes: the myth of the earth-
quakes around the year 1000 and the 1298 event in Central Italy. Similar are the two
following cases: (i) the event of 1277, which was found by Guidoboni (1985) and
ENEL (1985) to be a duplication of the already discussed 1276 event, and: (ii) a
supposed foreshock of the 10 June 1410 event (Io 8-9 MCS, Mm 5.5), equally as-
sessed by ENEL (1985) as a duplication of the Verona earthquake mentioned above.
The earthquake of 1197 (Io 9 MCS, Mm 5.7 in Postpischl, 1985a) was accounted
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