1693 Sicily earthquake: Early Dorpat imprint (Tartu, Estonia). 1 copy worldwide.

[Earthquakes] / Bartholomaeus Schlütter. Siciliam Terrae Motu Concussam à d. 11. ad 22. Jan. Anni currentis D. O. M. A. A. F. P. C. In Regia ad Emmam Acad. Gustaviano-Carolina. Exponet Praeses M. Martinus Bertleffius, Respondente Bartholomaeo Schlütter Revaliensi. Ad diem 26. Augusti A. MDCXCIII. loco, horisq[ue] consuetis. Dorpati: Excudit Johannes Brendeken, Acad. Typograph., [1693]. 4to [18.1 x 15.1 cm], [16] ff., with woodcut tail-piece. Unbound, tied with string, spine covered with orange paper. Minor dustiness and staining to title, minor edge wear, a few contemporary annotations and corrections, early ownership inscription on title.

Extremely rare (1 copy worldwide: National Library of Finland) first and only edition of this report/treatise on the 1693 Sicilian Earthquake published in Dorpat, i.e., present-day Tartu, Estonia. The Latin exposition was submitted and read by a certain Bartholomaeus Schlütter at the Academia Gustaviana-Carolina in Dorpat on 26 August 1693 (the earthquake occurred on 11 January).

The earthquake was among the most powerful every recorded in Italy. The quake and its attendant tsunamis and landslides devastated coastal villages on the Ionian Sea and in the Straits of Messina, including in the provinces of Catania, Ragusa and Syracuse, with damage reported as far afield as Messina, Agrigento, Palermo, Reggio Calabria and Malta. Perhaps 100,000 were killed.

The Siciliam Terrae Motu Concussam gives a nod to the human tragedy, noting that “Sicily, the most famous of the islands, was shaken entirely by earthquakes, and its most flourishing cities are said to have been turned into swamps, while its inhabitants draw their breath with little hope,” but then it is remarked that “this great event to be investigated a little more deeply.”

The first part of the text discusses classical antecedents in history and literature, and the remainder of the text discusses causes of the earthquake, with space given to current theories about subterranean fire, rivers, excess vapors, combustive sulfur & bitumen, and the like. No space is given to divine causes.

OCLC and KVK locate only the copy at the National Library of Finland.

*Ene Jaanson, Druckerei der Universität Dorpat 1632-1710, p. 354.