Cullman Center Institute for Teachers: A History of Forgery with Nick Wilding

A History of Forgery with Nick Wilding

We are accustomed to reading about art forgeries, counterfeit antiquities, pirated pharmaceuticals, even fake racing bikes. Until recently most people assumed that it was not possible to forge rare books, and that any such attempts would be easily detected. Using the New York Public Library’s unrivaled collection of forgeries and facsimiles, we will investigate the surprisingly long and complicated history of techniques and technologies deployed in forging printed books. Along the way, we will consider what forgeries have to tell us about the times in which they occurred, and will conduct a broad survey of printing techniques, from 15th C woodblocks to contemporary photopolymer plates.

Nick Wilding is Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University. He is the author of the award-winning Galileo’s Idol: Gianfrancesco Sagredo and the Politics of Knowledge and Faussaire de Lune. He has written widely on early modern science, and held fellowships at Stanford, Cambridge, the American Academy in Rome, the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, and the New York Academy of Medicine. At the Cullman Center he is working on a history of book forgery.

This seminar is not open to the public. It is only for teachers who have applied and been accepted into the class.