Événement

Annual Zamorano Lecture - Detecting Contemporary Book Forgery

In 2005 a spectacular book appeared on the market: a copy of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius (1610) in which the author announced the existence of the moons of Jupiter, craters on the Earth's moon, and other astronomical discoveries that would revolutionize our view of the universe and our place in it. This copy was autographed by Galileo, and in place of the text engravings were original drawings, possibly by the author. Despite some doubts about its authenticity, it was bought by a prominent New York book dealer and its value was estimated at over $10 million. An international panel of experts put it through a battery of tests and published two volumes of scholarly articles supporting the contention that it was a "proof copy" of this landmark publication. Two years ago, however, Nick Wilding, a professor at Georgia State University, announced that the entire book was a forgerysignature, drawings, even the paper it was printed on. Without ever seeing the book itself, he used photographs to demonstrate that the book had to be of recent manufacture. Furthermore, over a dozen rare scientific books recently sold are also turning out to be fakes. The scheme was traced back to Marino Massimo De Caro, an Italian library director currently serving a prison sentence for making irregular deacquisitions. At the Zamorano Lecture, Dr. Wilding will describe the "low-tech" bibliographical methods and lines of reasoning he used to expose the fakes.