So I stepped into this one:
I’m not (currently?) writing about biblio fakes but given my enduring fascination with the Voynich manuscript they’re not completely outside my wheelhouse. My favorite is the one I first encountered on my Dad’s bookshelf as a kid: the Vinland map.
Purported to be the earliest documentation of pre-Columbian Viking presence in America, its written on 15th century parchment and bound with a genuine 15th century document (the Tartar Relation). Yale University acquired the map in the 1960s and was sufficiently convinced of its authenticity to write the academic tome I found in my Dad’s library, though experts had doubts from the start. After multiple studies and analyses over the years, Yale confirmed it as a fake just this past fall: the ink is dates to the 1920s at the earliest.
As (bad?) luck would have it, Yale published their book in 1965 at about the same time that archaeological finds in L’Anse aux Meadows confirmed a pre-Columbian Viking presence in the Americas.
In my rush around the internet to put together this post, I didn’t find anything on on who specifically forged the Vinland Map or why. I can only guess that someone in the 1920s was so desperate to prove the Vikings got to America first they were willing to invent evidence to “prove” it. So what we wind up with is a forgery created to prove something…that turned out to be true anyway. I love the irony.
Even so, I keep my Dad’s battered copy of “The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation” for sentimental reasons.
Analysis unlocks secret of the Vinland Map — it’s a fake (search Google News for “Vinland Map forgery” and you can find a dozen articles in the same vein)
The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation 1996 reissue – despite all doubts Yale University released a 30th anniversary version of their 1965 study that you can still buy from their website
Those of you who want to dive down the rabbit hole can watch all 6 hours of the 2018 “Vinland Map Rediscovered” symposium [YouTube] describing the research findings.
You always dig up such fascinating stuff!
Great post! I want mooooooar though. You give us a lot of facts, and you tell us that you keep your dad’s book for sentimental reasons, but what is it about the map that you love? What quirks in/of the map are the most interesting to you? If you were to make up a character who was in the process of making the fake map, what sort of person would they be? Would you find yourself connecting to them, or would you be repelled by the sort of person who would create a forgery? What sort of person would willingly, happily destroy 15th century parchment in making a forgery? ❤
Oooh, excellent questions!
My dad shared a lot of books with me as a child and was never dismissive of my ability to read them – he never told me something was too difficult for me or over my reading level. Having said this, I was a kid and didn’t understand a lot of the text in the book. I glommed on to the map because though the islands were too big and the coastlines not quite right it was so clear what it was trying to portray. I was learning about Columbus at school and the idea that there was a different (or at least additional) story about first European contact with the Americas felt like being let on a great secret shared only with a few.
As for the creator? For maximum drama I’d probably write them as some sort of true believer in the “Vikings first” theory. Why else would they go to the effort, risk being caught, and deface real historical documents?
Also, where would they get the access and knowhow in the first place? Clearly they’d need to have access to old collections and be educated enough to make a forgery real enough to convince academics for 40 years. A rogue librarian? A grumpy grad student, determined to create proof for a final thesis? Someone so wedded to a pet theory that they’ll make everyone else believe by any means necessary?
Epilogue: what is their reaction when L’Anse aux Meadows is discovered? Do they feel justified, or like they wasted time and defaced documents when the genuine proof was out there all along?
Thanks for asking this question, and for asking on my blog! I invite your reply, and for any other commenters to jump in if they’re interested.