The Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia (Catalogue of Strong Italian Earthquakes) is the most important outcome of a well-established collaboration between the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica (ING; since 2000 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, INGV), the leading Italian institution for basic and applied research in seismology and solid earth geophysics, and SGA (Storia Geofisica Ambiente), a private firm specializing in the historical investigation and systematization of adverse natural phenomena. The collaboration with SGA came to an end in 2007, when part of its personnel became INGV permanent staff.

The Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia, 461 a.C. - 1980 was first published in Italian in 1995 by Boschi et al. (1995: CFTI 1). It was intended as a complete account of Italian "strong earthquakes", of their territorial impact and of the social and economic upheaval caused. The decision of focusing only on the largest earthquakes was dictated by the need to establish a priority among the vast number of events reported in traditional catalogues. Only earthquakes with a reported maximum intensity equal to or bigger than intensity VIII-IX on the MCS scale were considered in  the first release of the catalogue, but this threshold was progressively relaxed for its subsequent versions. The second  release, that appeared two years later, included more earthquakes, was based on more accurate research, and covered a longer time span (461 B.C. to 1990) (Boschi et al., 1997: CFTI 2).

Knowing that the record of Italian historical seismicity is probably the most extensive of the whole world, and hence that the catalogue could be of interest for a wider international readership, Boschi et al. (2000) decided to share this experience with colleagues from foreign countries by preparing an English version of the catalogue. The new release (CFTI 3) entailed much additional research and fine tuning of methodologies and algorithms, including earthquakes up to 1997.

Following the publication of two large research bodies on the seismicity of the Mediterranean region up to the 10th century (Guidoboni et al., 1994) and between the 11th and 15th century (Guidoboni and Comastri, 2005), the area of relevance of the catalogue was extended to the entire Mediterranean basin. The new contents, which included only basic seismological parameters (felt reports and epicentral location for Italian earthquakes, epicentral location only for the other Mediterranean earthquakes), appeared in a new version of the catalogue (CFTI4Med), published in 2007 as a web and web-GIS repository (Guidoboni et al., 2007).

A decade later we are proud to present a new, largely revised and updated version of the catalogue, termed CFTI5Med. This new version features:

• the retrieval and formatting of over 23,000 original bibliographic documents, transcribed or printed, nearly 50% of those utilized in the CFTI5Med. These documents are now available on-line as fully searchable pdf files;
• a full geological reinterpretation, georeferencing and reprocessing of over 2,300 descriptions of earthquake-induced environmental effects, which are now all available and searchable in a user-friendly web-GIS environment;
• the elaboration of a number of texts and commentaries that were missing from the CFTI4Med version of the catalogue;
• a totally re-designed and more efficient web- and web-GIS interface.

The new Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia includes 1,259 earthquakes that occurred in Italy (98 of which are currently considered false). No commentaries on the main earthquake effects were available in the previous version of the catalogue for  87 of such events as they had not been updated with respect to the information supplied in Guidoboni e Comastri (2005) for the 1000 AD-1500 AD time interval. The commentaries concerning the most significant effects of Italian medieval earthquakes have now been elaborated and are available along with the information on more recent events. For the remainder of the earthquakes first presented with the CFTI4Med - those that occurred in the general Mediterranean area away from the Italian coasts - the new catalogue provides only the felt reports and basic epicentral parameters.

While the Italian earthquake record is an outstanding source of information, it nonetheless carries the inherent danger - and perhaps the parodox - of generating a distorted picture of the seismogenic potential of any area. The result in most instances is an underestimation of the earthquake potential, but also often an overestimation; in both cases the misrepresentation of the earthquake potential may result in dire consequences, especially in areas of potential economic development. Until recently, the results of historical research have been summed up in traditional parametric catalogues, a form of presentation that indeed provides the basic information required by the elaboration of conventional seismic hazard models, but also inevitably impoverishes the available information, potentially introducing biases and misrepresentations of the earthquake activity. Basic principles or earthquake source physics show that two crustal earthquakes of a magnitude 6.0 and 7.0 may cause the same peak acceleration and the same maximum macroseismic effects, but the area of strongest ground shaking will be much smaller for the 6.0 magnitude quake with respect to the 7.0 event. In the absence of instrumental data, the relative importance of the two earthquakes can be understood only by compiling a complete picture of their dynamic effects, something that traditional earthquake catalogues, focusing only on epicentral intensity, failed to supply.

The Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia reversed this trend, allowing for a more complete appreciation of the total energy released by any given earthquake and of the finest characteristics of its territorial impact. It is hence an analytical catalogue, supplying all the information available for any given earthquake in a pre-defined and easily accessible format, and including data and observations that may not be immediately relevant to seismic hazard applications but may be of interest for broader seismic risk analyses and for a number of other applications.

The basic principles of the Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia were discussed at length in a special issue of Annali di Geofisica (later renamed Annals of Geophysics) that accompanied version 3 of the catalogue (Boschi et al., 2000). In the following we briefly describe the main features of the catalogue, referring the reader to specific articles from the special issue for further information on any given topic. Notice that the articles are available only in English.

The motivations of the Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia are discussed in detail in the contribution entitled "A 'new generation' earthquake catalogue", by Enzo Boschi. After drawing a history of earthquake catalogues throughout the 20th century, the paper discusses the reasons why Italy has long been known as "the cradle of historical seismology". The density of the population and the wealth of historical heritage on the one hand, and the frequency of destructive earthquakes and the youthful geology of Italy on the other hand formed the basis for developing the most accurate record of historical seismicity currently available worldwide.

The general framework of modern historical seismology and its complex relations with instrumental seismology and seismotectonics on the one hand and with historical research on the other hand are outlined in the contribution "Method of investigation, typology and taxonomy of the basic data: navigating between seismic effects and historical contexts", by Emanuela Guidoboni. But research on past earthquakes also requires developing a standardization that takes into account the semantic value and the hierarchy of the retrieved historical sources on the one hand, and their relations with the economic context and the building style on the other hand. In the paper "Seismic scenarios and assessment of intensity: some criteria for the use of the MCS scale" Graziano Ferrari and Emanuela Guidoboni elucidate all the difficulties involved in the use of any earthquake intensity scale.

In principle, the diversity of Italian landscape led to an ubiquitous presence of scholars and cultural centers meant that Earth tremors were witnessed and minutely recorded down the ages for subsequent generations living in any given area of Italy. In many instances, however, information flowed towards the main cultural centres, with certain areas probably being cut off from the rest of the landmass not only by mountain chains but also on account of wars, religious differences and other historical phenomena. The extent to which this isolation may have altered the "collective memory" of Italian earthquakes - and hence the perception of the associated hazard - is discussed by Gianluca Valensise and Emanuela Guidoboni in the article "Towards new research strategies: silent seismogenic areas or silent sources?".

When research on historical earthquakes is conducted also on a territorial basis one may encounter evidence for "unknown earthquakes", that is, real earthquakes that are not known to any current compilation. The paper "Unknown earthquakes: a growing contribution to the Catalogue of Strong Italian Earthquakes" by Dante Mariotti, Alberto Comastri and Emanuela Guidoboni elucidates the main challenges involved in unearthing the evidence for earthquakes overshadowed by other larger events, or affected by chronological mistakes, loss of information or concomitance with other considerable natural phenomena.

One of the most significant features of historical seismology data down through history is their extremely high spatial resolving power. Mario Baratta, the compiler of the first modern earthquake catalogue of Italian history (Baratta, 1901), stated that "research into past tremors, together with the monographic study of each single quake occurring in a given region up to modern times, allow us to identify various quake 'focuses' or 'radiants'". Baratta identified over 250 'seismic centres' in Italy, one every 1200 km², or in other words, one every 35 km along any cross-sectional line drawn across the peninsula. Indeed the accuracy with which the epicentres of quakes were determined by historical and more recent data was unrivalled until the first half of the seventies.

But turning historical data into quantitative seismological parameters involved the need to develop objective analytical techniques to assess earthquake intensities and subsequently obtain the main properties of the earthquakes source. The paper "Reducing the subjectivity of intensity estimates: the Fuzzy Sets approach" by Gianfranco Vannucci, Paolo Gasperini and Graziano Ferrari outlines a method for the encoding and the computer analysis of the macroseismic effects derived from historical sources, allowing the process of seismic intensity assessment to be completely formalized using a multi-criteria decisions-support algorithm. In the paper "Deriving numerical estimates from descriptive information: the computation of earthquake parameters" Paolo Gasperini and Graziano Ferrari describe the long and meticulous development of what is now a widely accepted and consolidated approach for turning intensity data into robust numerical estimates: the Boxer computer code. Finally, in the paper "From earthquake intensifies to earthquake sources: extending the contribution of historical seismology to seismotectonic studies" Paolo Gasperini and Gianluca Valensise discuss how to turn the intensity data available for pre-instrumental into "equivalent earthquakes sources", a crucial step for building seismogenic models and obtaining more detailed and more reliable seismic hazard estimates.

A fundamental - yet often unappreciated - benefit from historical earthquake documentation is a greater understanding of the heterogeneous nature of widespread, small-scale property damage caused by local amplifications of ground motion. While the theory underlying these phenomena is well understood today, only the historical record can verify the existence of these repeated localized damage patterns. In recent years the seismic response of several important urban centres like Bologna, Catania, Palermo, Ferrara and Florence has been investigated by specific research programmes. Emanuela Guidoboni and Graziano Ferrari summarize the results of this research effort in their contribution "The effects of earthquakes in historical cities: the peculiarity of the Italian case". But local site amplifications are not the only condition that may control the seismic response of the built enviroment. Other relevant variable were discussed in the paper "Historical variables of seismic effects: economic levels, demographic scales and building techniques", also by Emanuela Guidoboni and Graziano Ferrari. In most cases, these studies entail detailed investigations of the huge body of information contained in the Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia. The results of these studies are now becoming an integral part of the background knowledge available to town planners, architects and restorers, and therefore an indispensable means of reducing the vulnerability of Italy's historic architectural heritage.

Finally, the paper "Earthquake effects on the environment: from historical descriptions to thematic cartography", by Gianluca Valensise and Emanuela Guidoboni attempts to bridge the gap between earthquake history and geology. The effects of earthquakes on the environment may be subdivided into two categories: those effects related to shaking, and those which may be due directly to the seismogenic source. While the former include significant changes in the landscape and in the local hydrology - just think of the large earthquake-induced landlsides caused by Italian earthquakes, the latter generally have a lesser territorial impact yet they may entail a considerable scientific interest.

The Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in ltalia is hence the vault that preserves for the present and future generations the wealth of information gathered through old and new research strategies over at least three decades. The data are presented in a uniform and formalized fashion, allowing the reader to navigate upstream from the parameters of a specific earthquake to the original sources that were used to investigate that event. For all these reasons we hope that the users will find it not only useful, but also interesting and stimulating.

The Authors

This section is meant to provide the reader with more detailed information on CFTI5Med. In particular, we supply details on the structure and organization of the information that was gathered through many years of investigation of the different earthquake sequences.

Instrumental catalogues generally supply one record per earthquake. In contrast, the earthquake effects described by historical sources often refer to the combined effect of multiple shocks of a sequence. This is generally unavoidable, since it is always difficult to separate the effects of subsequent shocks, either because they occurred very close in space and time, or simply because of the limited resolution of historical sources.

In our Catalogue we present the data organized "by earthquake sequence", after aggregating shocks that appear reasonably clustered in both time and space. Occasionally this aggregation has been quite hard, in particular when two or more spatially and chronologically close sequences cannot be separated with confidence. The aggregation of multiple shocks into a single sequence has been crucial during the acquisition, filing and digitization of the retrieved historical information.

To make it easier to access the historical information and prevent any loss of data that are not directly used to describe the earthquake effects, but may be useful to reconstruct the seismic scenario from different viewpoints, we chose to describe each sequence through a set of synthetic historical-critical comments. Only in a few instances do these comments refer to individual shocks. Conversely, all maps describing the earthquake effects have been prepared for each individual shock, and so are the intensities reported at each locality.

For this new version of the Catalogue these comments have been organized following seven key-areas, from which we may derive up to 16 sub-areas, depending on the quality of the information available for each earthquake. In the following we provide basic guidelines for exploiting the CFTI5Med most effectively. For further details the reader is encouraged to refer to the paper "Method of investigation, typology and taxonomy of the basic data: navigating between seismic effects and historical contexts", by E. Guidoboni.

The historical-critical comments prepared for each individual earthquake sequence can always be consulted in the webpage describing the given event by hitting the "Comm." button.

1.1. Chronological parameters: this section describes the complete chronology of all tremors for which memory is preserved, including an indication of the place of observation/measurement, if this was clearly expressed by the sources, and a summary of the effects. Its aim is to supply all the information available about the given seismic sequence and show how this information contributes to the subsequent parameterization of the tremors.

2.1. State of earthquake review: describes the quality level of the revision made and the main types of basic data used, either bibliographic or archival; the general viewpoint of the revision is described, stating the selections made, even those with negative outcomes; the main scientific works available are also indicated.

2.2. Development of earthquake review: this section highlights specific research problems, successful and unsuccessful archival selections made, and data typologies; it also discusses critical elements emerging with respect to the dating or the tradition of the texts, and any outstanding problems of toponymy.

3.1. Elements of local demography

This section provides data on the population of the areas hit by the earthquake. The data can be used to evaluate both the incidence of earthquake victims relative to the entire population, and the social impact of the event in relation to the residential density.

3.2. Characteristics of the local building styles

This section describes the main elements of the building heritage in relation to the materials used, the buidling techniques and the overall state of preservation of the building stock.

3.3. Administrative/historical affiliations and boundaries

The main elements of the administrative hierarchies, which may clarify the adopted research strategy, motivate possible different institutional interventions during the evaluation of the damage and the reconstruction, and also provide elements for more detailed research at a later date.

3.4. Social and economic response

A summary of the immediate circumstances exerting the greatest effects on the economic context: halting of the production activities, types of requests to the public administrations, migratory flows, prolonged abandonment of the epicentral, forms of regulation, etc.

3.5. Institutional and administrative response

Main institutional and administrative dynamics which characterized the post-earthquake stage, both for evaluating the damage and for planning the reconstruction; projects for moving sites, for territorial or urban planning, for introducing tax exemptions.

3.6. Reconstructions, relocations

Describes the main elements emerging during the stage of reconstruction; the decisions to rebuild towns or villages in a different location, the timing of the reconstruction, the quality of the interventions on surviving buildings. All of these elements affect considerably the performance of the building stock in later earthquakes.

4.1. Scientific observations and theories

A summary of interpretations of the earthquake expressed by natural philosophers, naturalists and seismologists according to the ideas dominating the various historical periods. There are two main fields of interest in this information area: the composition of the cognitive framework, to which the historical descriptions of the seismic phenomena refer, and, more generally, the history of Seismology.

4.2. Technical/scientific observations and surveys

A summary of indications from the reports of experts concerning technical assessments of damage, both as written descriptions and in the iconography; on-site seismological surveys; and specific descriptions regarding the technical, naturalistic and scientific context of the earthquake.

5.1. Major earthquake effects

A summary of the main tremors, of the most damaged sites, of the extent of the area struck by the earthquake, of the typology of the most significant damage, and of the global extent of the felt area. It is indicated whether the data available allow the effects of the tremors to be differentiated or else if the overall damage pattern is cumulative for multiple shocks.

5.2. Concurrent natural and man-induced destructive events

An indication was given of the concurrence of the earthquake with other destructive events (extreme events of natural origin or destructions caused by human activity) which may alter considerably the contemporary descriptions of the earthquake effects and the evaluation of the impact on the human environment.

5.3. Effects on the built environment by individual locality

A descriptive summary of the effects for each identified locality, supplied along with the relative specific bibliographical references. Only intensity estimates from known sources have been used for earthquakes revised at the first and second level, when direct macroseismic information was not available. Every site was carefully located through its geographical coordinates and included in the list of locations that were assigned an intensity degree.

6.1. Characteristics of the effects on the natural environment

A brief description of the effects of the earthquake on the natural environment: ground cracks, chasms, landslides, rockfalls, changes in the discharge rate of rivers and springs, tsunami effects, overflowing of lakes, etc.

6.2. Associated natural phenomena

Indications are given about any phenomena associated with the earthquake based on contemporary witnesses: unusual animal behavior, light phenomena, electromagnetic variations etc.

6.3. Effects on the natural environment by individual locality

A brief description of each effect of the earthquake on the natural environment at the given locality. Whenever possible, the available witnesses were assigned to a specific shock of the earthquake sequence. In CFTI5Med all the observed effects have been better classified and geo-referenced.

For every investigated sequence CFTI5Med provides the relevant bibliography in an organized form. Each available witness has been filed individually to allow it to be more easily retrieved. The bibliography includes both published and unpublished sources: when listed by author the unpublished sources were ordered by the name of the site where they are kept (archives and libraries). All texts are classified based on the strength assigned to the witness(es) they contain with respect to the earthquake sequence being considered (see list below): notice that this classification refers to individual pieces of information relative to each sequence, not to the whole of the text. Next to each reference the Catalogue provides a link to one or more PDF files containing such texts, when available. For further details see Original texts in digital form.

7.1. Classification of the strength of individual testimonies

All testimonies were ranked according to their characteristics, and ultimately according to their reliability. Each one was assigned a specific code that allows the reader to assess more easily their potential relevance. The codes are the following:

Direct source. The text was written by a contemporary witness, both trustworthy and geographically close to the event described, whose testimony is hence deemed reliable and authoritative.

Source chronologically close to the event. The author is chronologically close to the event (lifetime), but is geographically distant from the site to which the witness refers. It includes all cases where the witness was obtained indirectly from another text or by oral tradition, and it is impossible to trace back the path followed by the information.

Apocryphal source. It is said of a text that was deemed unreliable. Texts of this category are included in the bibliography only because they were used in previous studies and as such deserve to be re-considered.

Repertoire. A list of earthquakes prepared according to the viewpoints of literary and naturalistic erudition. It also includes texts on the “freak events” that are typical of the beginning of the modern age, and in general all catalogues compiled before the nineteenth century.

Repertoire-type source. This expression refers to direct sources of information contained in a Repertoire (see above), which in itself can not have the value of a true source since it is usually a collection of late and indirect information.

Catalogue. List of earthquakes compiled from the nineteenth century onwards for scientific or naturalistic purposes. It may be based on selections of sources or works quoted, or may not report any indication of the sources used. It may be descriptive or parametric.

Catalogue-type source. It is a direct testimony contained in an earthquake catalogue, chronologically contemporary to the author or drawn up from direct observations by the author in person or transcribed in full from original texts.

Bulletin. A publication produced through observations or recordings by specialist centers; a table of measurements; a complete or even partial series of measurements taken within different contexts (deeds of academies, articles, etc.). Observations of earthquake effects reported in observatory registries have been considered direct or indirect sources, depending on each specific case.

Generic information. This definition is used to define information taken from secondary historiographic sources (e.g. local social histories), in coveval memoirs or in antiquarian historiography, when the event described is very distant in time or when the information is so generic that is reasonable to assume that the data are not supported by sources known to the author. This code indicates that this information requires further verification, or that it may be interpreted only as a clue for further investigations.

Historiographic study. This code includes studies by contemporary historians (but not necessarily conducted using the criteria of recent critical historiography), specific studies on past earthquakes or studies on relevant aspects of the economic, demographic and social history that were used to improve the understanding of the earthquake effects.

Scientific bibliography. This code is assigned to coeval studies conducted within a specific theoretic interpretative and cognitive framework, starting with the beginning of the nineteenth century, or to recent studies on past earthquakes.

1,259 earthquakes that occurred in the Italian area (between 461 b.C. and 1997), including 42,663 intensity datapoints obtained by analyzing and rating the effects on the built environment (macroseismic observations) and 2,337 datapoints obtained by analyzing and rating the effects on the natural environment (earthquake-induced).

475 earthquakes that occurred between the years 760 b.C and 1500 in the Mediterranean area. For 223 earthquakes that occurred up to the end of the 10th century we provide only the epicentral location, whereas for those that occurred between the 11th and 15th century we provide 635 original intensity datapoints obtained by analyzing and rating the effects on the built environment (macroseismic observations) and 68 datapoints obtained by analyzing and rating the effects on the natural environment (earthquake-induced environmental effects).

In addition to boasting a new powerful interface and a number of new functionalities and improvements, the new CFTI5Med features many additional data

2 shocks that were not in CFTI4Med we added in the new version of the Catalogue:
1494 09 01 16:45 - Tortora (CS) - link
1708 03 03 22:40 - Messina - link

2 shocks that appeared in CFTI4Med along with their parameters have been reconsidered and are now classified as “false earthquakes":
1183 12 - - - - Verona - link
1223 - - - -  - Gargano - link

6 independent earthquake sequences were re-investigated in detail. As a result, the following 8 shocks are now presented in a form that has been significantly updated with respect to the CFTI4Med:
1183 12 - - - - Verona - link
1223 - - - - - Gargano - link
1732 11 29 - 07:40 - Irpinia - link
1908 12 28 - 04:20:27 - Calabria meridionale-Messina - link
1948 06 13 - 06:33:36 - Valtiberina - link
1948 08 18 - 21:12:20 - Puglia settentrionale - link
1948 08 21 - 08:44:47 - Puglia settentrionale - link
1948 08 22 - 23:16:20 - Puglia settentrionale - link

35 shocks have been thoroughly re-investigated an taken at a higher revision level. As a result, in CFTI5Med they feature updated parameters, updated locations for the main effects and updated associated intensitied:
91 b.C. - - - - - Reggio Calabria? - link
17 - - - - - - - - - - - Reggio Calabria-Sicilia - link
 853 08 31 - - - - - - -Messina - link
1329 06 28 - 22:00 - Area etnea - link
1494 05 29 - 02:15 - Messina - link
1509 02 25 - 22:20 - Calabria meridionale - link
1693 01 08 - 22:15 - Calabria settentrionale - link
1708 01 26 - - - - - - - Pollino - link
1781 06 03 - 06:25 - Appennino marchigiano - link
1783 02 06 - 00:20 - Calabria meridionale-Messina - link
1805 07 26 - 21:00 - Molise - link
1828 02 02 - 09:15 - Casamicciola Terme (NA) - link
1828 10 09 - 02:20 - Valle Staffora - link
1828 10 10 - 01:30 - Valle Staffora - link
1854 02 12 - 17:50 - Cosentino - link
1857 12 16 - 21:15 - Basilicata - link
1870 10 04 - 16:55 - Cosentino - link
1881 03 04 - 12:15 - Isola d’Ischia - link
1883 07 28 - 20:25 - Isola d’Ischia - link
1895 05 18 - 19:55:12 - Fiorentino - link
1895 06 06 - 00:35:05 - Fiorentino - link
1897 07 15 - 05:57 - Slovenia - link
1905 09 08 - 01:43:11 - Calabria - link
1908 07 10 - 02:13:35 - Carnia - link
1909 08 25 - 00:22:27 - Toscana meridionale - link
1915 01 13 - 06:52:43 - Marsica - link
1928 03 27 - 08:32:30 - Friuli - link
1930 07 23 - 00:08:00 - Irpinia - link
1930 10 30 - 07:13:06 - Marche settentrionali - link
1936 10 18 - 03:10:01 - Alpago-Cansiglio - link
1947 10 06 - 19:55:36 - Grecia meridionale - link
1961 10 31 - 13:37:18 - Valle del Velino - link
1976 05 06 - 20:00:13 - Friuli - link
1978 04 15 - 23:33:47 - Golfo di Patti - link
1980 11 23 - 18:34:52 - Irpinia-Basilicata - link

23 earthquake sequences have been updated and the associated historical-critical comments have been partially re-written. CFTI5Med features the historical-critical comments and updated description of earthquake effects in the relevant localities for 29 events for which CFTI4Med presented only parametric data and intensities attributed to the effects reported for each locality (macroseismic observations)
99 - - - - - Circello (BN) - link
346 - - - - - Sannio - link
361 - - - - - Stretto di Messina - link
375 - - - - - Benevento - link
847 06 - - - - Sannio - link
989 10 25 - - - Irpinia - link
1183 12 - - - - Verona - link
1223 - - - - - Gargano - link
1403 09 06 - - - Cividale del Friuli (UD) - link
1494 05 29 - 02:15 - Messina - link
1494 09 01 - 22:40 - Messina - link
1570 11 17 - 19:10 - Ferrara - link
1574 08 01 - - - Ferrara - link
1624 03 19 - 19:45 - Argenta (FE) - link
1693 01 08 - 22:15 - Calabria settentrionale - link
1708 01 26 - - - Pollino - link
1732 11 29 - 07:40 - Irpinia - link
1828 10 09 - 02:20 - Valle Staffora - link
1828 10 09 - 08:00 - Valle Staffora - link
1828 10 10 - 01:30 - Valle Staffora - link
1851 08 14 - 13:20 - Basilicata - link
1851 08 14 - 14:40 - Melfi (PZ) - link
1853 04 09 - 12:45 - Irpinia - link
1881 03 04 - 12:15 - Isola d’Ischia - link
1889 03 08 - 02:57:04 - Bologna - link
1895 05 18 - 19:55:12 - Fiorentino - link
1895 06 06 - 00:35:05 - Fiorentino - link
1898 01 16 - 12:10:05 - Argenta (FE) - Portomaggiore (FE) - link
1916 11 16 - 06:35:30 - Appennino umbro-reatino - link

For 94 shocks belonging to 60 independent earthquake sequences that occurred in the interval 11th-15th century, and that were discussed in detail in Guidoboni & Comastri (2005) CFTI5Med provides descriptive syntheses of the main effects and excerpts from the cited volume in PDF. This information was not available in CFTI4Med.

In summary, over a total of 252 shocks having an epicentral intensity of VIII or larger the CFTI5Med now provides:

• all historical-critical comments and the descriptions of the effects in the relevant localities for 214 shocks;
• descriptive syntheses of the main effects and PDF excerpts from the reference volume (Guidoboni & Comastri, 2005) for 36 shocks;
• only for 2 shocks the historical-critical comments are still not available.

2,337 synthetic descriptions of earthquake-induced effects on the environment, previously inaccessible in CFTI4Med, are now fully available.

23,538 witnesses associated with the investigated earthquake sequences were made fully accessible in PDF format as of March 2018, when CFTI5Med was officially released. These witnesses are a subset of the 47,211 witnesses consulted during the investigations that led to the Catalogue. 20,940 of these PDFs contain transcripts ( PDF_T ), whereas 3,400 are scanned images of the original text ( PDF_R ). Notice that there may exist both pdf types for the same original source.

The web-page describing each of the investigated earthquakes of the Mediterranean area (non-Italian) contains also PDF excerpts of the descriptive syntheses taken from the reference volumes (Guidoboni et al. , 1994; Guidoboni & Comastri, 2005).

For each of the earthquakes that occurred in the Mediterranean area (non-Italian) in the interval 11th-15th century CFTI5Med makes available a map of the effects on the built environment (macroseismic observations) and of the effects on the natural environment (earthquake-induced environmental effects) reported for  each individual locality. These data were not available in CFTI4Med, which reported only epicentral parameters.