Avisos y relaciones manuscritos y impresos sobre catastrofes naturales y sucesos prodigiosos en Sicilia durante el siglo XVIII

Abstract

In the eighteenth century there is a large number of stories, both handwritten and in print, that describe extraordinary and unlucky events of different kinds: monstrosities, eclipses, or storms, floods, earthquakes, eruptions, etc. These stories, with respect to Sicily, take the form of occasional printed news, although sometimes they may be included in serials organized by different criteria (topographic/chronological/subject). Surviving documents in archives and libraries offer some opportunities to deepen the study of issues concerning the circulation and dissemination of news about the same event, their credibility, their formal characters and content. Very rare printed ephemera and handwritten documentation, mainly from libraries in Palermo and Catania, are used in this contribution.