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Article ID: CBB932259109

Earthquake Observations in the Age Before Lisbon: Eyewitness Observation and Earthquake Philosophy in the Royal Society, 1665–1755 (2020)

Blanken, Kerrewin van (Author)

Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Volume: 0
Issue: 0
Pages: 22

DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2020.0005

URI: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2020.0005

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Observation Seismology Interviews Personal narratives Earthquakes 18th century 17th century Royal Society of London

Between 1665 and 1755 several members of the Royal Society collected eyewitness accounts of earthquakes, some of which were published in the Philosophical Transactions. While such observations have been recognized as crucial to early seismology in the nineteenth century, their impact on the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century natural philosophy of earthquakes has received limited attention. This article suggests that growing inclusion of observations considerably challenged existing theories and epistemologies and was indispensable to the emergence of seismology in the second half of the eighteenth century. Initially, observations of earthquakes served two uses: the provision of particulars and the verification of other observations. By the eighteenth century, a new approach to empiricism was beginning to influence the collection of observations, focusing on information that could be compared and synthesized to chart the extent and varying intensities of earthquakes. This practice promoted a conception of subterranean, travelling earthquakes that could be measured by their intensity, and which were hypothesized to have some form of centre or origin. While seismology could develop on the basis of sound theoretical assumptions, these assumptions were heavily indebted to the methodological practice of eyewitness observation.

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