Ricerc@Sapienza

Forgery has played a central role in literature and culture since antiquity. As a cultural phenomenon deeply rooted in social, political, economic, religious and literary contexts, it sheds light on the relationship between past and present throughout the centuries. Covering a wide range of meanings behind their production, forgeries of literary texts, manuscripts, archaeological artefacts or objects, epigraphical texts and historical documents, presuppose a complex, multi-faceted, process of imitatio/aemulatio and competition, originated in established educational practices and in a scholarly milieu. Following the renewal of interest in the rhetoric and culture of fake in classical and modern scholarship, this project aims to get a deeper look at the fascinating world of forgery by reflecting on the process of production and counterfeiting, clarifying then the forgers' backgrounds and the historical and cultural purposes behind the creation of simulated `authentic' material. This research project will adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the study of forgery in the Greco-Roman literary world, covering all the disciplines of antiquity (literature, ancient history, archaeology, and epigraphy) and spanning over a long and unparalleled period, from antiquity to the Renaissance, the so-called `age of forgery'. We will investigate both material fakes and literary pseudepigrapha in Greek and Roman literature as well as in Italian Humanism and Renaissance. Due attention will be paid to the origin, production and circulation of copies and faked artefacts in visual arts, statuary, and sculpture as well as to forgery of historical documents and epigraphical texts. We also plan to make use of digital resources for questions of authorship and attribution. Additionally, it is our aim to create an online catalogue of literary forgeries.