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Seville-printed pamphlet (Assimismo se da noticia de las cometas
, 1668) dates
this between December 29, 1667, and January 10, 1668, and is supported by the
Mexican Diario de sucesos notables (De Robles, 1665-1703). The earthquake ap-
parently shifts to Tunis between April 27 and May 1, 1677, according to an Italian
pamphlet (Tunisi 3 maggio 1677. Vera relatione e copia di lettera
...
, 1677), and then
returns to Algiers in 1686 according to another pamphlet (Algieri li 4 luglio 1686.
Vera e distinta relazione
...
, 1686). These A pamphlets are clearly based on a com-
mon template - a text that still remains to be identified - which they reproduce with
slight variations for the epilogue (sometimes a new earthquake, sometimes a plague
outbreak).
The “B” pamphlets describe an earthquake that occurred in Tripoli either in
January 1685 (Tripoli, 1685a), or in May 1685 (Tripoli, 1685b), or even in September
1694 (Verissima relatione
...
...
, 1694). The B template is very similar to the A tem-
plate, from which it differs only in the choice of the epilogue (the lightning-induced
explosion of a powder-magazine which blows up a quarter of the city, causing thou-
sands of deaths).
6 Hints of a Possibly Destructive Earthquake in Early 1640
(on the Algerian Coast)
Among so many fictional earthquakes, there is sometimes a real one. The historical
and seismological literature (De Grammont, 1887; Ambraseys and Vogt, 1988; Cresti,
2005; Harbi et al., 2005) mentions a minor earthquake felt in Algiers some time in
1639. Contemporary
Avvisi
do not mention any earthquake as having occurred in Al-
giers in 1639 (which is not sufficient to conclude that the 1639 earthquake is fictional,
of course), but they do give comparatively ample evidence of a possibly destructive
seismic sequence that occurred in Algiers and its surroundings in February-March
1640 (Table 3). News of this earthquake (Fig. 4) first spread into Italy in a Genoese
Avviso
of April 6, 1640 (BAV, 1640a). This is certainly based on news that left Algiers
after March 12 (as it describes earthquake shocks that occurred from February 26 to
March 12), and which certainly reached Genoa by ship, possibly directly from Algiers
as there is no mention in the
Avviso
of any other forwarding seaport. This earthquake is
Ta b l e 3
News of the 1640 Algiers region earthquake
Date
Place
Occurrences
Feb 26
Algiers' coast
Earthquake
After Feb 26
Near Algiers
Earthquake shocks demolish villages
Mar 12
Algiers
New earthquake felt; people afraid
Apr 6
Genoa
Earthquake news from Algiers published in Genoa
Avvisi
Apr 14
Rome
Earthquake news from Algiers via Leghorn published in Rome
Avvisi
Apr 21
Rome
Earthquake news from Algiers via Leghorn published in Rome
Avvisi
May 6
Genoa
Earthquake news from Algiers published in Genoa
Avvisi
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