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

Résumé En

Fake artefacts are objects of fascination. This volume is devoted to fakes and forgeries of written artefacts from Mesopotamia to modern China. Produced for economic, political, religious or more personal reasons, fake artefacts can be identifi ed by studying their contents and materiality. They are sold on the antique market today along with real artefacts that have often been looted, and therefore require ethical refl ection from scholars.Cécile Michel, Michael FriedrichFakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts: An IntroductionPart I: From Copies to ForgeriesCécile MichelCuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present DayCatherine BreniquetHow Writing Came about in Glozel, FranceUta LauerVenerable Copies: The Afterlife of a Fragment of a Letter by Wang Xizhi (303–361) François DérocheFakes and Islamic Manuscripts Part II: Forgers and Their MotivesEkkehard WeberFake Ancient Roman Inscriptions and the Case of Wolfgang Lazius (1514–1565) Olivier GenglerMichel Fourmont and His ForgeriesJan Just WitkamSicilian Sweets. The Fanciful Frauds of Wily Father Vella Dan ShapiraEt tout le reste est littérature, or: Abraham Firkowicz, the Writer with a Chisel Malachi Beit-AriéSupplement: The Forgery of Colophons and Ownership of Hebrew Codices and Scrolls by Abraham Firkowicz Part III: Identifying FakesClaudia ColiniLa invención del Sacromonte: How and Why Scholars Debated about the LeadBooks of Granada for Two Hundred YearsJost GippertIdentifying Fakes: Three Case Studies with Examples from Different Types of Written Artefacts Ira Rabin, Oliver HahnDetection of Fakes: The Merits and Limits of Non-Invasive Materials AnalysisMichael FriedrichProducing and Identifying Forgeries of Chinese Manuscripts Contributors