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.