CHAPTER XII.FORGED INSCRIPTIONS AND SPURIOUS MEDALS.
Ancient Memorials of Geographical Discoveries—Mistakes arising from them—Frauds to which they gave occasion—Imposture of Evemerus—Annius of Viterbo wrongfully charged with forging Inscriptions—Spurious works given to the World by him—Forged Inscriptions put on statues by ignorant modern Sculptors—Spurious Medals—Instances of them in the Cabinet of Dr. Hunter—Coins adulterated by Grecian Cities—Evelyn’s Directions for ascertaining the Genuineness of Medals—Spurious Gold Medals—Tricks of the Manufacturers of Pseudo-Antique Medals—Collectors addicted to pilfering Rarities—Medals swallowed by Vaillant—Mistakes arising from Ignorance of the Chinese Characters.
Itappears to have been the practice of the early Greek navigators to leave memorials on shores discovered for the first time, and to take possession of them by a dedication to one of their gods or heroes; as modern navigators in their discoveries have usually named prominent headlands, islands, or secure harbours, from some statesman or hero of the day.
These ancient inscriptions being found among barbarous nations by succeeding navigators, when the original discoverers were forgotten, it might be concluded that those heroes, to whom the shores had been merely dedicated in the first instance, hadactuallybeen there.
The probability of such circumstances led the way in after times to a species of fraud, for conferring a spurious antiquity on certain places and things by persons, producing,as authentic and ancient, histories and monuments of their own manufacture.
Evemerus, a Messenian, or, according to some writers, a Sicilian, a cotemporary of Cassander, king of Macedon, seems to have been the first who attempted this kind of fraud; for he pretended to have found on a golden column, in an ancient temple in the island of Panchæa, a genealogical account of a family that had once reigned there, in which were comprised the principal deities then worshipped by the Greeks. Not only were their lives recorded, but also their deaths; and thus a deadly blow was aimed at their divinity. This fable was translated into Latin by Ennius.
Annius of Viterbo, who was born at Viterbo, in 1432, and whose real name was John Nanni, has been charged with framing inscriptions from his own imagination, and burying them in certain places, that, when they had acquired an appearance of antiquity, he might pretend to find, and might vend them. He is also said to have manufactured medals of an early date. Both these charges are, however, erroneous. It is nevertheless certain that, accompanied by his own commentaries, he presented to the world, as genuine, the pretended works of several exceedingly ancient authors; for this he has incurred much odium, but it is believed, by many learned men, that, instead of being a forger, he was himself deceived by forged manuscripts. This fraud gave rise to a violent controversy, in which many of the most eminent literary men were engaged.
The great uncertainty relative to the genuineness of inscriptions on ancient statues originated in the ignorance or fraud of those who restored them. Even Phædrus, in the application of a fable at the beginning of his fifth book, alludes to this practice in his time by mercenary artists. “The name of Apollodorus, on the plinth of the Venus deMedicis,” says Mr. Dallaway, “has been detected as a modern forgery. The statues which have been dug up in a mutilated state, and placed in the hands of venal or ignorant artists, have always had the name of some eminent character given to them. Doubts of genuineness are at least allowable, and often justified, of those statues the hands of which have been evidently engrafted.”
The fabrication of spurious coins for the market was neither a modern contrivance nor of unfrequent occurrence. The collection of medals belonging to Dr. Hunter affords some examples. One of a leaden coin, cased in silver, as remote as the time of Selcucus, king of Syria, may be seen in that cabinet; and also a similar coin of the city of Naples. In the Roman series, Neumann makes mention of a remarkable instance from Schulzius, of a leaden coin of Nero, which had been anciently circulated for brass, in which metal it was enclosed. In Dr. Hunter’s cabinet are two examples of leaden coins covered with gold; one of the Emperor Trajan, the other of his successor.
Demosthenes relates, on the authority of Solon, that several cities in Greece adulterated their coins; and Dion Cassius states, that the Emperor Caracalla, instead of gold and silver, issued brass and leaden coins, which were merely washed or cased with silver or gold, to conceal the fraud.
Evelyn, in his “Numismata,” exposes many of the tricks of those who, at the period at which he wrote, supplied the market with spurious coins and medals. “The most likely means,” says he, “for procuring genuine coins or medals, are from country people, who plough and dig about old walls, mounds, &c., where castrametations have formerly been. The composition or grouping of the figures should also be well considered, that it be with judgment; for the ancients seldom crowded many figures together. A perfectmedal has its profile and out-strokes sharp, and by no means rugged; the figures clean and well polished, and an almost inimitable spirit of antiquity and excellence, in the most ancient. Yet after much research, travel and diligence, cost and caution, one is perpetually in danger of being deceived, and imposed upon, by cheaters and mercenary forgers; and even the country people, in Italy and Holland, often deceive the less wary medalist. Where a series of ancient medals is known to be imperfect, suspicion should always attach to him who pretends to supply the chasm, and complete the series.[14]
“All medals of gold, Greek or Roman, that are not of the best alloy, are to be considered impostures.
“The manufacturers of pseudo-antiques, will raise and carve the effigies of one emperor out of another antique head of a less costly and rare description; for instance, an Otho out of a Nero; and also the reverses: nay, they have the address to slit and divide two several medals, and, with a certain tenacious cement, join the reverse of one to the head of the other, and so repair and trim the edges that it is impossible to discover the ingenious fraud. A partial deceit is often practised on the unwary, by taking off a part of a relievo, and applying it to another medal; by the same artifice and dexterity, the title of a genuine medal may be entirely altered, where there are but few letters, by pinching up a letter in one part, or removing superfluous matter in another, so that in process of time the metamorphosis is complete.”
Mr. Obadiah Walker accuses the Jews of being most industrious in putting off spurious medals. Some persons purposely bury medals near the remains of some Romanworks, and then pretend to have found them by chance; as is also reported of a certain statuary, who carved the pseudo Hercules, and sold it at a great price, before the justly-admired original statue was discovered.
Rival collectors have been known to prey on each other’s rarities, by clandestinely swallowing the most precious gem in a collection; at least an anecdote to this effect is related on the continent, of Baron Storch, a celebrated gem collector.
The Abbé Barthelemi, taught by experience, was very careful how he exposed to visiters the rarities in the French cabinet of medals, of which he was the keeper; for in his account of the duties of his office he says, “Such a depository as this cabinet of medals cannot safely be made public; several persons might put their hands on them at one time, and it would be easy to carry them off, or substitute such as are spurious or common. I had no other resource, after I had got rid of the groups, but to examine the shelves at which they had been looking.”
Vaillant, the celebrated numismatist, when pursued at sea by Algerine pirates, is said to have swallowed a whole series of Syrian kings. When he landed at Marseilles, he hastened to his friend, physician, and brother antiquary, Dufour, groaning horribly, with the treasures in his belly. Dufour was only anxious to know, whether the medals were of the higher empire; Vaillant showed him two or three, of which nature had relieved him: a bargain was immediately struck, and the coins recovered.
The almost universal ignorance in Europe of the Chinese alphabet, and written character, has been the cause of some curious mistakes in deciding on the merits of certain coins. So little was aprofessorof Chinese, at Rome, versed in the language he professed to know, that he is said, by Mr. Pauw, to have mistaken some charactersfound on a bust of Isis for Chinese; which bust and characters were afterwards proved to be the work of a modern artist of Turin, made after his own fancy.
In Great Britain, we have, till recently, known still less of the Chinese language and literature than on the Continent. “It is not many years since,” says Mr. Barrow, “that one of the small copper coins of China, stamped in the reign and with the name of the late Tchien-lung, was picked up in a bog in Ireland, and, being considered as a great curiosity, was carried to an indefatigable antiquary, whose researches have been of considerable use in investigating the ancient history and language of that island. Not knowing the Chinese character, nor their coin, it was natural enough for him to compare them with some language with which he was acquainted; and the conclusion he drew was, that the four characters on the face were ancient Syriac, and that the reverse appeared to be astronomical or talismanic characters, of which he could give no explanation. The Mantchoo Tartar characters of another coin he supposed to signifyp,u,r, which he construed into sors, or lot; and it was concluded, that these coins must either have been imported into Ireland by the Phœnicians, or manufactured in the country; in which case the Irish must have had an oriental alphabet. In either case, these medals,” it was sagely observed, “contribute more to authenticate the ancient history of Ireland than all the volumes that have been written on the subject.”