THE DESTRUCTION OF LIMA AND CALLAO. 4to. [19 x 13 cm]. 19 pp, (1), with large woodcut initial on A1r. Bound in handsome early 20th century half red morocco with gilt trim over red cloth boards; all edges gilt. An excellent, crisp copy. Fifth recorded copy of this ephemeral newsletter reporting on the devastating tsunami/earthquake which destroyed Lima and Callao on October 28, 1746. A version of the text was first printed in Lima that same year – surviving in four copies worldwide – and a further edition appeared in Mexico in 1747. The present work seems to be the first European printing of the newsletter (no version was printed in Madrid), although a book-length account was also translated into English in 1748. “The original edition is a piece of extreme rarity. It relates one of the most dreadful convulsions of nature on record. The Port of Callao was inundated by the sea, and the entire population perished; Lima was almost destroyed.” (Sabin). It is interesting to consider the effect of reports of Peruvian devastation on the inhabitants of Lisbon, which would itself be struck just 7 years later by a magnitude 8 earthquake. Striking in the middle of the night, the Lima earthquake is today estimated to have had a magnitude of almost 9 on the Richter scale. The present text seems to be the source for many of the statistics subsequently passed on through European chronicles: for example, although the population of Lima is said to be 60,000, just 1,141 are reported dead; of 3,000 buildings in the city, just 25 are still standing. Specific structures and churches felled by the earthquake are recorded in detail. Callao, the northernly port of Lima, did not escape so lightly. We find the names of merchants (Thomas de Chavaque, Juan Lucas Camacho, Marcos Sanz, etc.) whose ships were destroyed in the port; about half an hour after the tremors, a tsunami killed some 5,000 inhabitants and flattened all remaining structures. Recent scholarship suggests that the author of the pamphlet remains anonymous, although in the past wrongly attributed to the Argentinian Jesuit historiographer Pedro Lozano (1697-1752). OCLC shows just four copies of the present translation worldwide: JCB, NYPL, Newberry, and the BN de Chile. The only copy of any edition traced in auction records was sold at Sotheby’s in 1981. * Alden-Landis, European Americana 748/102; Sabin 42590; Palau y Dulcet (2. ed.) 142973; Medina, Lima II, p. 432.