A treasured manuscript in the University of Michigan library believed to be written by famed Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei is a forgery, the university said.
The one-page document known as the “Galileo manuscript” cannot be traced back earlier than 1930 and was likely written by notorious Italian forger Tobia Nicotra, he said in a statement. An investigation began after Nick Wilding, a history professor at Georgia State University, contacted the university’s curator, Pablo Alvarez. Wilding questioned the manuscript’s watermark and provenance and shared serious doubts about its authenticity.
“Wilding concluded that our Galileo manuscript is a 20th-century forgery executed by the well-known forger Tobia Nicotra,” the university said. “After our own experts studied his most compelling elements — about paper and provenance — and re-examined the manuscript, we agreed with his conclusion.”
Among the aspects Wilding questioned was the paper itself, particularly the monograms in the paper’s watermark that date the work no earlier than the 18th century, the university said.
Nicotra was imprisoned for two years in 1934 for forgery, including Galileo’s papers, the statement noted.
The university is now reviewing the manuscript’s role in its collection.
A portrait of Galileo Galilei painted in 1636. Credit: Imagno/Getty Images
Before the forgery was determined, the document was described by the university as “one of the great treasures of the University of Michigan Library.”
It purports to show notes recording Galileo’s discovery of the four moons of Jupiter.
“This was the first observational data showing objects orbiting a body other than Earth,” the university’s description of the manuscript reads. “It reflects a pivotal moment in Galileo’s life that helped change our understanding of the universe.”
The astronomer, who died in 1642, invented the telescope — among many other achievements — that allowed him to discover that Jupiter has moons. He became the leading proponent of Copernican astronomy, which denied that the earth was the fixed center of the universe.
The University of Michigan acquired the manuscript in 1938 after it was bequeathed to the library by a Detroit businessman, Tracy McGregor, who was a collector of books and manuscripts.
When MacGregor acquired it, the document had been authenticated by Cardinal Pietro Maffi, who was the Archbishop of Pisa and who “compared this sheet with an autograph letter of Galileo in his collection,” the university said.
