The University of Michigan has reported that a document attributed to Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei in the 17th century is actually a 20th century forgery.
An investigation into the origin of the manuscript began after a report by Nick Wilding, a scientist working on a biography of Galileo. Wilding stated that he believed the forged document was the work of Tobia Nicotra, who also forged the autographs of Christopher Columbus, Warren G. Harding, Lorenzo de’ Medici and other historical figures early in the last century, receiving a two-year prison sentence for doing so.
Until this year, the university believed it had Galileo’s original record of his discovery in 1610 of the four moons of Jupiter, which he observed through a newly constructed telescope. The document was considered one of the gems of the University of Michigan library.
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The fake was given a watermark with the inscription “BMO”, referring to the Italian city of Bergamo. The first documents with such a watermark appeared after 1770 – more than a century after the manuscript could have been created.
The origin of the document was also a problem. The university claimed to have received Galileo’s manuscript in 1938, after the death of Detroit book collector Tracy McGregor. He bought the document at an auction, where it was sold along with two other documents by Galileo. However, these papers were also found to be forgeries of Nikotra. Also, the university has no record of where the alleged Galileo manuscript was before 1930.
The document is still of value for the study of the history and technique of forgeries.
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Source: ARTnews
