For almost twenty years, the Italian community of historical seismologists has been developing a wide and articulated research programme for updating and improving the macroseismic database used by compilers of the national earthquake catalogue to calculate increasingly accurate and reliable epicentral parameters. The initiatives carried out include: in­depth studies of single earthquakes, detailed reconstructions of the ‘seismic histories’ of single localities/areas, and large­ scale study campaigns. These aimed at i) conducting preliminary (or ‘expeditious’) studies for historical earthquakes above the damage threshold that currently lack them, ii) updating or improving outdated or preliminary data, and iii) identifying and studying as many earthquakes as possible that exceeded the...