Document of Italy’s Galileo found to be forged

CAIRO – 23 August 2022: The American University of Michigan said that the document, which was thought to be written by Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei in the 17th century, is in fact a fraud that dates back to the 20th century.

An investigation into the manuscript began earlier this year after Nick Wilding, a scholar working on Galileo's biography, told them he believed the forged document was probably the product of Tobia Nicotra's 1934 work, since this person forged the signatures of Christopher Columbus, Warren J. Harding, Lorenzo de' Medici, and others, and was sentenced to 2 years in prison, according to ARTnews.

Until this year, the University of Michigan believed it was keeping Galileo's notes of his 1610 discovery of Jupiter's four moons. In a statement, the university said it believed the manuscript was ‘one of the jewels’ in the University of Michigan's library.

Despite the firm belief that the document was a fraud, the university’s library said it was still valuable.

“In the future, the manuscript may serve the research, learning, and teaching interests of counterfeiting, forgery and deception," said Lynn Rawley, an editor at the University of Michigan.