Galileo manuscripts at Michigan university fake & forged
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Investigation into the alleged Galileo manuscript reveals information suggesting the inauthenticity of the document.
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The University of Michigan's Galileo manuscript. (University of Michigan)
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has revealed that a document, which was believed to be written by Italian physicist Galileo Galilei in the 17th century, is a 20th-century forgery.
Investigation into the manuscript started earlier this year after a scholar working on Galileo's biography, nick wilding, revealed information suggesting the inauthenticity of the document.
Speaking to a curator at the University of Michigan Library, Wilding said he believed that the document was actually the work of Tobia Nicotra, who, according to a report in 1935 by Time magazine, also forged signatures by Christopher Columbus, Warren G. Harding and more. Nicotra was sentenced to two years in jail for this.
“After our own experts studied [Wilding’s] most compelling evidence—about the paper and provenance—and reexamined the manuscript, we agreed with his conclusion,” the university said in a statement.
Up until this year, the university had believed that it had Galileo's notes regarding the astronomer's discovery of Jupiter's four moons, remarking that "It had been thought of as “one of the jewels at the University of Michigan Library."
However, a watermark on the paper reading "BMO", which refers to Bergamo, an Italian city, gave away the document as fake, as there are no other documents with such a watermark dated before 1770.
In addition, the document's origin also posed an issue: the university reeled in the manuscript in 1938, after Tracy McGregor, a Detroit books collector, passed away. The collector bought the document at an auction when it was sold alongside two other Galileo documents - which, surprise, surprise, are also forged by Nicotra.
Despite this, although the document is fake, the university still believes that it has value: “In the future, it may come to serve the research, learning, and teaching interests in the arena of fakes, forgeries, and hoaxes, a timeless discipline that’s never been more relevant,” said Lynn Raughley, an editor at the University of Michigan.
