Traces of an 18th-century master forger: new evidence discovered

A document kept at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Göttingen has been found to be an 18th-century forgery. This document is dated to 1266, but refers to a church in Pisa that was not built until later. This discovery is the result of research conducted by historian Dr. Boris Gubele of the University of Göttingen in collaboration with Italian researchers.

The team was looking for exhibits at the Forum Wissen, the knowledge museum at the University of Göttingen. This particular document is of particular interest because the text is written in Italian rather than Latin, making it unique among the Göttingen collection.

The document mentions a couple from Pisa who promised a son to a religious order that supposedly owned a church in Pisa. However, the church was built in the 14th century, which is clearly a later date. Gubele, a researcher in medieval and early modern history at the University of Göttingen, along with Italian researchers, finally realized that further discrepancies in the document were actually the work of forger Domenico Cicci. .

In the late 18th century, Chitti probably forged about 200 documents, all of which were thought to be medieval. In these he presented his ancestors as bishops and notaries, heirs to lands, and even crusaders and knights of the order. Its purpose was to allow Chichi’s family to join the nobility, and he actually succeeded in doing that.

“This 18th-century forgery by an Italian forger almost led historians down the wrong path. For example, the dates on the church could have been changed,” Gubele said. “In fact, many of his forgeries may still lie undiscovered in various archives.”