Coverage in Dutch Newspapers of Earthquakes in Italy and Beyond before Lisbon 1755

This chapter discusses tidings about earthquakes retrieved from the dig-itised Dutch newspapers before the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. It focuses on how these newspapers reported about previous earthquakes and how detailed their contents were. Other addressed questions: Which parts of the world did they deal with most frequently, did they explain the causes of earthquakes, and what type of media culture do they represent? This chapter demonstrates that readers of early modern Dutch newspapers were already familiar with earthquake reports long before 1755. These papers mainly treated data, although within the existing societal framework. They represented, as far as possible, a media culture of accuracy, although sometimes with a touch of sensationalism. Readers could read dominant opinions only between the lines and draw conclusions for themselves. The widely accepted idea was that earthquakes were punishments from God and that people should repent their sins