Books and Manuscripts

Miranda, Thome de Dios
Verdadera Relacion, de el dano que ha Hecho el Fuego que se Deramo del Bolcan, Llamado Mongibelo. Monte que esta en la Isla de Cicilia…
Seville: for Thome de Dios Miranda, 1669. First and only edition. 8vo. Unpaginated (8 pp.). Modern mottled brown sheep, green morocco spine label, stamped in gilt; all edges trimmed; marbled endpapers; ink ownership stamp of Antonio Moreno Martín (1916-90) on verso of front blank; contemporary inscription and ink scrawl at bottom of last text page; text trimmed close and touching one catchword and part of inscription; early 20th century label of “Libreria de P. Vindel…Marid…” on recto of rear free endpaper; other library pencil notations on endpapers.

Very rare first edition, one of only two known copies, of this eyewitness account of the 1669 eruption of Sicily's Mt. Etna, the largest and most destructive eruption of the volcano ever recorded.

The volcano began rumbling on March 8, 1669 and over the next several weeks erupted several times, spewing toxic gas and lava and leaving thousands displaced or homeless. So great was the eruption that ash was found hundreds of miles away on mainland Italy. Over a dozen towns and villages were destroyed, including part of Catania, a city of 20,000 residents nestled on the sea 18 miles south of the volcano. The narrator of this volume, who was located in the town of Bronte on the volcano's northwest side, describes different aspects of the eruption, including the various seismic activity that followed, the large ash plume, the damage inflicted, and the population's reactions.

OCLC locates only one other copy, in the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana, in Madrid.