The Perrey Archive: a story about collecting earthquakes and eruptions

Abstract

The Perrey Archive, a unique historical collection of texts and manuscripts on earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of the past, is preserved in the Fondo Sismico of the library of the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria. This collection is the result of the tireless research of French scientist Alexis Perrey (1807–1882), who is regarded as one of the founders of seismology. The article illustrates what it means to “collect” earthquakes and eruptions, as well as other extreme events and how Perrey built his collection over the course of roughly 40 years, and it describes the role that the catalogs created by Perrey played for historical seismology. Finally, in addition to the value and significance of Perrey’s intellectual enterprise for the history of science, the article discusses the different aspects of archives and archiving for sciences. Photographic composition of some volumes from the Seismic Collection of the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria, photo by Claudio Novelli.