University’s Galileo Manuscript Is a Fake by Infamous Forger

A one-page document long touted as a manuscript written by Galileo is actually a fake created by a notorious forger, the University of Michigan has revealed. For nearly a century, the paper was believed to be the draft of a letter from Galileo about a telescope built in 1609, accompanied by the scientist’s notes about moons of Jupiter he saw with it. A Georgia State University history professor began investigating the manuscript—which was bequeathed to the university in 1934—and concluded it was actually the work of Tobia Nicotra, who went to prison in the 1930s for a different forgery.