Detective work by academic revealed supposed letter and notes by astronomer from 1610 were work of a 20th-century Italian forger
“After our own experts studied his most compelling evidence – about the paper and provenance – and re-examined the manuscript, we agreed with his conclusion,” the university concluded.
The university said the auction firm American Art Anderson Galleries sold the library of Roderick Terry, a wealthy collector, in May 1934, which contained the manuscript. It had been authenticated by Cardinal Pietro Maffi, who “compared this leaf with a Galileo autograph letter in his collection”, the university noted. Then a prominent DetroitTracy McGregor obtained the letter and his trustees gave it to the university after his death in 1938.
More than 80 years later, Wilding alerted university curator Pablo Alvarez about the manuscript’s watermark and provenance. The watermark on the paper featured the letters “BMO” for Bergamo, where the paper was supposedly produced.
What’s more, the university said it found “no trace of the document before 1930”. A letter from Maffi, archbishop of Pisa, that initially accompanied the document at the 1934 auction compared the Galileo manuscript with two other documents from Galileo in Pisa. Those documents were later found to be forged by Nicotra.
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