Catalogo Parametrico dei Terremoti Italiani (CPTI99)

With the publication in 1985 of the Catalogue of Italian earthquakes from the year 1000 to 1980 of the Progetto Finalizzato Geodinamica, curated by Daniele Postpischl, a particularly fruitful period began for historical Seismology and for seismic hazard analysis. During this period, two independent research groups carried out important projects: the Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti (Catalogue of Strong Earthquakes) in Italy, published in 1995 and 1997 by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica (National Institute of Geophysics) and by the SGA Storia Geofisica Ambiente, and the NT Catalogue, published in 1997 by the Gruppo Nazionale per la Difesa dai Terremoti (National Group for Defence from Earthquakes). The existance of two catalogues, different for purposes and strategies adopted, but still much more precise and richer in information with respect to the previous ones, has been received with great favour by the scientific world. However, these two catalogues force users to do choices to when using the data for their applications. Among the catalogue users, the Italian Civil Protection urged the compilation of a unified reference parametric catalogue that is a summary report aimed at reducing, without necessarily eliminating them, the differences existing between the two catalogues. The work for compiling the Parametric Catalogue of Italian Earthquakes (CPTI) was carried out by the Working Group set up by Enzo Boschi, researchers - mostly authors of the two previous catalogues - who contributed in various ways to the success of the initiative. CPTI is the result of choices and elaborations of the Working Group as such, and is therefore a synthesis effort to reach a point of agreement shared by the researchers involved.