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Vor einigen Jahren kam heraus, dass ein Exemplar vom Sidereus Nuncius, welches anscheinend mit Aquarellzeichnungen von Galileo ausgeschmückt war, tatsächlich eine Fälschung war: An almost perfect forgery
„Sidereus Nuncius“ und der größte Fälschungsskandal seit 200 Jahren
Die Fälschung wurde seinerzeit von Nick Wilding entlarvt
Jetzt wurde ein weiteres Galileo Manuskript, das sich seit 1938 im Besitz der Universität von Michigan befindet, als Fälschung identifiziert. Und ratet mal, wer es herausgefunden hat:
Researcher discovers "Galileo manuscript" forgery
Der Fälscher verwendete ein Papier mit dem Wasserzeichen AS/BMO einer Papiermühle in Bergamo in Italien, das erst ab 1770 im Umlauf war, also 160 Jahre später als die mutmaßlichen Aufzeichnungen von Galileo. Die Geschichte wird ausführlich in der New York Times dargestellt. Daraus hier einige Auszüge, Zugang zum vollständigen Artikel erfordert wohl eine Subskription (*)
Wilding began to research the Michigan document, and found there was no record of it in Italian archives. It first appeared at auction in 1934, when it was purchased by a Detroit businessman, and it was bequeathed to the university in 1938 after his death. Wilding emailed the library in May to ask for more provenance information and to request an image of the document’s watermark - an insignia visible when held to the light that can indicate where and when the paper was made.
Pablo Alvarez, the curator at the library’s Special Collections Research Center, retrieved the document from storage and photographed its watermark, a circle with a three-leafed clover and the monogram, “AS/BMO.”
The provenance information raised red flags: The auction catalog said it had been authenticated by Cardinal Pietro Maffi, an archbishop of Pisa who died in 1931, who had compared it to two Galileo autograph documents in his collection. Those documents, Wilding discovered, had been given to him by Tobia Nicotra - a notorious 20th-century counterfeiter in Milan.
By early June, Wilding had determined that “BMO” was used as an abbreviation for the Italian city of Bergamo, and found a reference work called “The Ancient Paper-Mills of the Former Austro-Hungarian Empire and Their Watermarks” with information on paper from the city. No other document with a “AS/BMO” watermark appeared before around 1770 - making it highly unlikely that Galileo could have used the paper more than 150 years earlier.
(*) The New York Times
„Sidereus Nuncius“ und der größte Fälschungsskandal seit 200 Jahren
Die Fälschung wurde seinerzeit von Nick Wilding entlarvt
Jetzt wurde ein weiteres Galileo Manuskript, das sich seit 1938 im Besitz der Universität von Michigan befindet, als Fälschung identifiziert. Und ratet mal, wer es herausgefunden hat:
Researcher discovers "Galileo manuscript" forgery
August 17, 2022
After an internal investigation of the findings of a Georgia State University professor of history, the University of Michigan Library has concluded that its "Galileo manuscript" - for almost a century considered one of the jewels of the library’s collection - is not a document written by Galileo himself in 1609 and 1610 but a 20th-century fake, most likely executed by the well-known forger Tobia Nicotra.
Der Fälscher verwendete ein Papier mit dem Wasserzeichen AS/BMO einer Papiermühle in Bergamo in Italien, das erst ab 1770 im Umlauf war, also 160 Jahre später als die mutmaßlichen Aufzeichnungen von Galileo. Die Geschichte wird ausführlich in der New York Times dargestellt. Daraus hier einige Auszüge, Zugang zum vollständigen Artikel erfordert wohl eine Subskription (*)
Wilding began to research the Michigan document, and found there was no record of it in Italian archives. It first appeared at auction in 1934, when it was purchased by a Detroit businessman, and it was bequeathed to the university in 1938 after his death. Wilding emailed the library in May to ask for more provenance information and to request an image of the document’s watermark - an insignia visible when held to the light that can indicate where and when the paper was made.
Pablo Alvarez, the curator at the library’s Special Collections Research Center, retrieved the document from storage and photographed its watermark, a circle with a three-leafed clover and the monogram, “AS/BMO.”
The provenance information raised red flags: The auction catalog said it had been authenticated by Cardinal Pietro Maffi, an archbishop of Pisa who died in 1931, who had compared it to two Galileo autograph documents in his collection. Those documents, Wilding discovered, had been given to him by Tobia Nicotra - a notorious 20th-century counterfeiter in Milan.
By early June, Wilding had determined that “BMO” was used as an abbreviation for the Italian city of Bergamo, and found a reference work called “The Ancient Paper-Mills of the Former Austro-Hungarian Empire and Their Watermarks” with information on paper from the city. No other document with a “AS/BMO” watermark appeared before around 1770 - making it highly unlikely that Galileo could have used the paper more than 150 years earlier.
(*) The New York Times
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