Moreira de Mendonça, Joachim Joseph; Historia universal dos terremotos que tem havido no mundo, de que ha noticia, desde a sua creaçaõ até o seculo presente : com huma narraçam individual do terremoto do primeiro de Novembro de 1755., e noticia verdadeira dos seus effeitos em Lisboa, todo Portugal, Algarves, e mais partes da Europa, Africa, e América, aonde se estendeu : e huma dissertaçaõ phisica sobre as causas geraes dos terremotos, seus effeitos, differenças e prognosticos : e as particulares do ultimo. Lisboa: Antonio Vicente da Silva, 1758. Octavo, pp. xii, 272.
The work is complete and in a contemporary calf and marbled boards with gilt spine titles. Binding is worn at spine with nice restoration along spine margins. Rear hinge re-enforced on inner gutter, very light foxing to first and last pages. In good condition.
This work was published in Lisbon, Portugal, three years after the massive earthquake and tsunami which destroyed much of the city. In addition to presenting a rare account of the earthquake, Moreira de Mendonça also provides a universal history of earthquakes from the earliest recorded accounts up to 1755. He also discusses the effects that the Lisbon earthquake had on how earthquakes were viewed by various scholars throughout the world. The final part of the work discusses the causes of earthquakes. The work is in Portuguese and is quite rare. It remains an important early count of the Lisbon earthquake and a major early work on how scientists perceived earthquakes.