In Italy, historical research on earthquakes has a long and glorious tradition, which in recent decades has gone through very different phases. In the first half of the 1980s and up to the mid- 90s, two very demanding research ventures were developed: the research program financed by ENEL for the qualification of sites susceptible to nuclear plants in three areas of the country (Piedmont, Lombardy, Puglia), later merged into the “Catalog of Strong Italian Earthquakes” (CFTI) of the ING/INGV, and the “Hazard project” of the GNDT/CNR, aimed at preparing all the basic data necessary for a model of hazard updated. As part of these two ventures, for about a decade over a hundred researchers, mostly “professional” historians, have worked to update their knowledge of Italian historical...