Natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and hurricanes cause environmental, economic as well as sociological problems worldwide. In recent years, greater availability of information and sensational media reports of natural hazard occurrence -and in particular in terms of property damage or loss oflife caused by these hazards -resulted in an increase of hazard awareness at a societal level. This increase in public awareness has often been misconstrued as an indication that natural hazards have been occurring more frequently with higher magnitudes in recent years/decades, thus causing more damage than in the past. It is still under debate, however, to which extent recent increases in damage can be related to changing frequencies of natural processes, or whether catastrophic events occur at similar rates as they always had. If the latter is the case, the reason for a greater damage can be related to dramatic population growth over the last century, with a substantial augmentation of population density in some regions. Indeed, the implications are more server in underdeveloped and developing countries, where urbanisation has increasingly occurred in hazard prone areas such as coastal zones, alluvial river plains and steep slopes, thus causing an increase in the exposure to natural hazards. Some groups of society in wealthy countries accept higher risks in order to live directly on top of a cliff or on a steep slope to enjoy panoramic views of the landscape.

This book seeks to provide a comprehensive reconstruction of the 1667 Dalmatia earthquake phenomenon on the basis of eyewitness testimony. At the same time, one of the distinctive features of this book is that the earthquake observations are treated and arranged in time and space so as to provide earthquake data on the macroseismic intensity, which might be used in seismic hazard and risk studies. On April 6, 1667 a devastating earthquake struck the southernmost region of Dalmatia (Croatia). Most of the affected area at that time belonged to the independent Republic of Ragusa, the capital of which was the town of Ragusa, today Dubrovnik. The 1667 earthquake left behind a lasting scar on the history and life of the Republic, as it was the catalyst of a serious financial crisis. Both the economic and more general consequences of this earthquake have been discussed in historiographical and seismological essays in late 20th-century works. This book seeks to provide a comprehensive reconstruction of the 1667 Dalmatia earthquake phenomenon on the basis of eyewitness testimony. At the same time, one of the distinctive features of this book is that the earthquake observations are treated and arranged in time and space so as to provide earthquake data on the macroseismic intensity, which might be used in seismic hazard and risk studies. The book is also intended as an extensive case history, which allows the author to include some guidelines on how to approach the study of a past earthquake and proceed to its full seismological interpretation. In this respect, a unique feature of the book is the comprehensive and detailed analysis of the original documentary sources in their proper context, effectively combining the interpretative approaches of history and seismology.