Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China

book: Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China

Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2020

Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China

Edited by: Cécile Michel and Michael Friedrich

Volume 20 in the series Studies in Manuscript Cultures

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714333

Overview
Contents

About this book

Open Access

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.

Author information

Cécile Michel, University of Hamburg & CNRS, Nanterre, France; Michael Friedrich, University of Hamburg, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Contents Open Access Download PDF	V
Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts: An Introduction Cécile Michel and Michael Friedrich Open Access Download PDF	1
Part I: From Copies to Forgeries
Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day Cécile Michel Open Access Download PDF	25
How Writing Came about in Glozel, France Catherine Breniquet Open Access Download PDF	61
Venerable Copies: The Afterlife of a Fragment of a Letter by Wang Xizhi (303–361) Uta Lauer Open Access Download PDF	77
Fakes and Islamic Manuscripts François Déroche Open Access Download PDF	89
Part II: Forgers and Their Motives
Fake Ancient Roman Inscriptions and the Case of Wolfgang Lazius (1514–1565) Ekkehard Weber Open Access Download PDF	101
Michel Fourmont and His Forgeries Olivier Gengler Open Access Download PDF	123
Sicilian Sweets. The Fanciful Frauds of Wily Father Vella Jan Just Witkam Open Access Download PDF	149
Et tout le reste est littérature, or: Abraham Firkowicz, the Writer with a Chisel Dan Shapira Open Access Download PDF	173
Supplement: The Forgery of Colophons and Ownership of Hebrew Codices and Scrolls by Abraham Firkowicz Malachi Beit-Arié Open Access Download PDF	195
Part III: Identifying Fakes
La invención del Sacromonte: How and Why Scholars Debated about the Lead Books of Granada for Two Hundred Years Claudia Colini Open Access Download PDF	209
Identifying Fakes: Three Case Studies with Examples from Different Types of Written Artefacts Jost Gippert Open Access Download PDF	263
Detection of Fakes: The Merits and Limits of Non-Invasive Materials Analysis Ira Rabin and Oliver Hahn Open Access Download PDF	281
Producing and Identifying Forgeries of Chinese Manuscripts Michael Friedrich Open Access Download PDF	291
Contributors Open Access Download PDF	337

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Historians, philologists, archaeologists, art historians
Pages
- Front matter: 6
- Main content: 338
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 22
- Coloured Illustrations: 60
- Tables: 0
Keywords: Fakes; forgeries; written artefacts

eBook

Published: November 23, 2020
ISBN: 9783110714333

Hardcover

Published: November 23, 2020
ISBN: 9783110714227