Fakes and forgeries of written artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China / / edited by: Cécile Michel and Michael Friedrich.

• Superior document: Studies in manuscript cultures ; 20
• Funder: Centre for the Study of Manuscript
• Author: Michel, Cécile; Centre for the Study of Manuscript
• MitwirkendeR: Catherine, Breniquet,; Claudia, Colini,; Cécile, Michel,; Dan, Shapira,; Ekkehard, Weber,; François, Déroche,; Ira, Rabin,; Jan, Just Witkam,; Jost, Gippert,; Malachi, Beit-Arié,; Michael, Friedrich,; Oliver, Hahn,; Olivier, Gengler,; Uta, Lauer,
• HerausgeberIn: Friedrich, Michael,; Michel, Cécile,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter,, [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in manuscript cultures ; 20.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (VI, 338 pages) :; illustrations.
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Fakes and forgeries are objects of fascination. This volume contains a series of thirteen articles devoted to fakes and forgeries of written artefacts from the beginnings of writing in Mesopotamia to modern China. The studies emphasise the subtle distinctions conveyed by an established vocabulary relating to the reproduction of ancient artefacts and production of artefacts claiming to be ancient: from copies, replicas and imitations to fakes and forgeries. Fakes are often a response to a demand from the public or scholarly milieu, or even both. The motives behind their production may be economic, political, religious or personal – aspiring to fame or simply playing a joke. Fakes may be revealed by combining the study of their contents, codicological, epigraphic and palaeographic analyses, and scientific investigations. However, certain famous unsolved cases still continue to defy technology today, no matter how advanced it is. Nowadays, one can find fakes in museums and private collections alike; they abound on the antique market, mixed with real artefacts that have often been looted. The scientific community’s attitude to such objects calls for ethical reflection.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts: An Introduction -- Part I: From Copies to Forgeries -- Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day -- How Writing Came about in Glozel, France -- Venerable Copies: The Afterlife of a Fragment of a Letter by Wang Xizhi (303–361) -- Fakes and Islamic Manuscripts -- Part II: Forgers and Their Motives -- Fake Ancient Roman Inscriptions and the Case of Wolfgang Lazius (1514–1565) -- Michel Fourmont and His Forgeries -- Sicilian Sweets. The Fanciful Frauds of Wily Father Vella -- Et tout le reste est littérature, or: Abraham Firkowicz, the Writer with a Chisel -- Supplement: The Forgery of Colophons and Ownership of Hebrew Codices and Scrolls by Abraham Firkowicz -- Part III: Identifying Fakes -- La invención del Sacromonte: How and Why Scholars Debated about the Lead Books of Granada for Two Hundred Years -- Identifying Fakes: Three Case Studies with Examples from Different Types of Written Artefacts -- Detection of Fakes: The Merits and Limits of Non-Invasive Materials Analysis -- Producing and Identifying Forgeries of Chinese Manuscripts -- Contributors