Investigation of pre-1700 Earthquakes Between the Adda and the Middle Adige River Basins (Southern Alps) - Historical Seismology: Interdisciplinary Studies of Past and Recent Earthquakes - page 105

earthquake. This contrasts with Formentini (19th century), a source today lost and
known through the quotation by Mercalli (1883), that says that the collapse occurred
on 13 June and because of the earthquake.
For Parma we have contradictory information. The Zunti chronicle (1589-1645)
reports:

“1642 [ ... ] et il 13 giugno tiro forte il terremoto che getto a terra molte mazze da camino”
[1642 [ ... ] and on the 13th of June the earthquake was so strong that knocked down many
chimneys]

Another source (Pugolotti, 16th-17th cent.) does not mention any damage:

“Alli 13 di Giugno 1642 suddetto giorno di Venerdı circa tre hore di notte venendo al
sabato, si e sentito in generale il terremoto, con gran strepito, qual [ ... ] non si `emai

sentito cosı terribile, e spaventoso.”
[On Friday the 13th of June, 1642, at about three in the night, an earthquake was felt, with
such a great noise, that it has never before been felt so terrible and frightening].

The latter record is here considered as the most reliable one, also because the time
coincides with the reports by Calvi (1676) and Cremosano (1642-1691). The earth-
quake was strongly felt also at Lodi (Agnelli, 1895) and lightly at Alessandria
(Ghilini, 1666). Aftershocks are mentioned as felt at Alessandria (Ghilini, 1666),
Lodi (Agnelli, 1895) and Mantova (Gionta, 1741).
In conclusion, we have a sufficiently clear picture of an earthquake of moder-
ate size, with damage in Bergamo and possibly light damage in Mantova; for the
remaining places the sources report effects “close to” collapse and a great fear
(Fig. 10). The list of intensity datapoints is:

Bergamo 6-7 MCS

Mantova 6

Lecco 5-6

Gessate 5 (possibly)

Lodi 5

Milano 5

Parma 5

Alessandria 3

3.3.1.4 January-March 1661

An earthquake dated 12 March 1661 was reported by Postpischl (1985a) as a heavily
damaging one (Io 9 MCS) located in the area to the east of Bergamo. Seismologists
have been interested to this earthquake since it occurred few days before the strong
and well documented event of 22 March 1661, which struck the Romagna region,
about 300 km from the Bergamo area. The earlier studies by Stucchi and Albini
(1988) and Stucchi et al. (1990) already showed that a number of coeval sources
describe several earthquake effects in the period 17 January - 20 March in varied
localities of Lombardy.