Strategies for Separating Authentic and Forged Colonial Manuscripts
Speaker(s): Ivan Boserup
Related events: New sources for book history – International Conference
Releated Working Group(s):
Collection: CERl conferences
Recorded: November 28, 2017
Abstract:
Ivan Boserup (The Royal Library, Copenhagen), Strategies for Separating Authentic and Forged Colonial Manuscripts of the Private Collezione Miccinelli in Naples During the past quarter of a century, an issue of international scholarly debate has been the authenticity (or not) of the Peruvian colonial material of Clara Miccinelli (Naples), privately owned and inaccessible for closer and professional examination.
The written part of the material consists of two "documents" or files, in all ca.15 mostly very short manuscript elements. Written mainly in 3-4 different hands in Spanish, Italian, Latin, and diverse alphanumeric and glyph-based codes, they contain "sensational revelations" and were finally published in toto in 2007 by Laura Laurencich-Minellii, a specialist in Indian textiles and a retired professor of indigenous Indian cultures at the University of Bologna, who in numerous papers had been a staunch advocate of the absolute authenticity of the Miccinelli manuscripts, inflexibly challenging an array of internationally respected scholars who have flatly rejected the whole lot as late 17th c. or late 20th c. forgeries.
The present paper will try to give an overview of the many types of arguments put forth through 25 years pro et contra authenticity, including key evidence deduced from material comparisons based on low-quality photographs, and use of current book-historical research instruments such as online library catalogs cumulated at national or international level.
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