A Narrative of the Earthquake and Fire of Lisbon.

London; Printed for G Hawkins, 1756., 1756. Original Wrappers. FIRST EDITION. Octavo. 20pp of parallel Latin and English text, each paginated separately. Vignettes to title pages and final leaves. Bound in later marbled paper wraps. Slightly cropped with minor loss to pagination to upper margin but not to text. Scattered foxing and creasing; a little fingermarking to rear blanks. Minor annotation inside cover "Baillie 370 96" and mathematical sum in ink to ffep. Overall condition Very Good. Rare first hand account of the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, which in combination with the subsequent fires and tsunami almost totally destroyed the city, causing one of the highest mortality rates by an earthquake in recorded history. The narrative vividly describes the chaos which descended on the inhabitants, giving details of time and duration, estimated fatalities on the day and during aftershocks, and of the buildings destroyed. Anecdotes of individual casualties and survivors are given with descriptions of life in the days following the quake, and the hardships endured by the inhabitants which included looting of property and robbery from the dead. This was the first earthquake to be studied scientifically, leading to the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering, and the causes are still debated by scientists today. Scarce; Copac locates a handful of copies in the UK only.