Reconstructing the 1456 earthquake sequence through the temporal analysis of the historical sources

Crete, Greece

During the night of 5 December 1456 a strong earthquake shook central and southern Italy, at that time part of the Naples kingdom, for more than 2 minutes. The analysis of the available documents, performed with varied approach (chronological, geographic, etymologic, etc.), and the reconstruction of the transmission of the information (from the villages to Naples, the capital, and from Naples to other capitals), allowed to determine a reliable damage pattern.