Description
Simonides, Constantine
Extensive collection of around 130 original documents on the forgery scandal of the "Palimpsest of Uranius" by Konstantin Simonides. Contains around 40 original letters from those directly involved, 30 copies and other papers from the people involved, 13 publications, and around 50 newspaper articles on the subject. From the period 1849 to 1863. Bound in the cardboard binding of the time (spine missing, corners and edges with major signs of wear).
The Greek Konstantin Simonides had already successfully sold real and forged documents to renowned institutions before he offered to buy another manuscript from the University Library in Leipzig. This palimpsest told an Egyptian royal story by the Alexandrian Uranius. The renowned Leipzig philologist Prof. Dindorf bought this manuscript from Simonides for 2,000 thalers and offered it to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin for 5,000 thalers. The Academy had several of its members examine the manuscript, found it to be authentic and supported the purchase of the manuscript. Due to the extraordinarily high sum of 5,000 thalers, the purchase would have had to be approved personally by the king. Since this was not possible at the time, Prof. Lepsius, who himself examined the writings in the academy, decided to purchase the manuscripts from his own resources. After further testing, the first concerns about authenticity emerged. The Leipzig professor Tischendorf had been propagating the inauthenticity of the manuscripts for a long time. However, when he received further evidence of Simonides' forgery skills and King Wilhelm IV approved the purchase, he telegraphed Alexander von Humboldt to Berlin: "I am convinced that the Uranius palimpsest is a fraud. Letter will follow immediately." Alexander von Humboldt was the most popular doubter about the authenticity of ancient writings. - This forgery scandal is reflected in the available original documents from the immediate circle of those involved. - Included are: Three (presumably) unpublished original letters signed by Alexander von Humboldt as well as a published copy of a letter from Humboldt to A. Boeckh. - An original telegraph dispatch from Tischendorf to Humboldt dated January 29, 1856. - Two letters from Konstantin von Tischendorf, six letters from August Boeckh, 18 letters from Wilhelm Dindorf, nine letters from Karl Lepsius as well as individual letters with signatures of other participants and Members of the Academy of Sciences such as Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, Georg Heinrich Pertz, Ernst Gotthelf Gersdorf. - In addition, two envelopes with an address to K. Simonides in London from 1858. - Two copies of letters to King William IV with a list of the Academy members involved in the investigation. Also included: Eight small contemporary publications on the Uranius palimpsest by, among others, Alexander Lykurgos, Leipzig 1856, a rare publication by C. Simonides on the authenticity of Uranius, Munich 1856, as well as an undetectable satirical double-page print "The Palimsets of Uhrhahnios for refreshment for clouded minds..." (1856). Without year and place. - Letters, copies and publications mostly in very good condition, newspapers with edge damage.