{{Short description|Italian archaeologist and historian}} {{Infobox person | name = Curzio Inghirami | image = Portret van Inghiramo Inghirami Portretten van beroemde Italianen met wapenschild in ondermarge (serietitel), RP-P-1909-4916 (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = Curzio Inghirami | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1614|12|29}} | birth_place = Volterra, Grand Duchy of Tuscany | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1655|12|23|1614|12|29}} | death_place = Volterra, Grand Duchy of Tuscany | other_names = | occupation = archaeologist and historian | known_for = ''Etruscarum antiquitatum fragmenta'' }} '''Curzio Inghirami''' (Volterra, 29 December 1614 — 23 December 1655), was an Italian archaeologist and historian, but also a forger of Etruscan artifacts.
== Biography == Curzio Inghirami was born in Volterra to an illustrious family with ties to the House of Medici.
In 1637 he published in ''[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015086673384 Ethruscarum antiquitatum fragmenta]'' (Frankfurt, 1637) the artefacts he had allegedly discovered in 1634-35 near his family's estate at Scornello, a hilltop near the city of Volterra. Curzio, who was nineteen years old at the time, unearthed a little capsule made of wax, resin, pitch, hair and mud containing ancient writings purportedly written in an undecipherable Etruscan script and in Latin. The discovery of this artefact, named ‘scarith’, was followed by hundreds of similar others, all containing accounts and prophecies written around 62 BC by one Prosperus Fesulanus, a novice in training to become an Etruscan priest (haruspex), from the prehistory of Italy to the fall of Etruria at the hands of the Romans in the 1st century BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Rowland|2004|p=12}}.</ref> These texts, the topography of Volterra and several objects – such as a lamp and an incomplete figurine – are displayed in woodcuts and engravings throughout the book.
In reality, the discoveries were ingeniously fabricated by Inghirami, inspired by the forger of Etruscan antiquities Annio da Viterbo (1437-1502). A debate regarding their authenticity, involving scholars from all over Europe, arose soon after publication.<ref>{{harvnb|Fiore|2012|p=74}}.</ref> Many urged in favour of the authenticity of these Etruscan artifacts, citing that Inghirami was too young an antiquary at the time of the discovery to devise a forgery; and that he could not decipher them; and also that when fresh searches were made of the spot, additionally similar artifacts were disinterred, where evidently they had long lain.<ref>{{citation-attribution|1={{cite book |author=Isaac D'Israeli |title=Curiosities of Literature |publisher=J. Murray |year=1835 |volume=3 |page=58}} }}</ref> Notwithstanding the erudition of the forger, however, the true artifacts of antiquity betrayed the modern assembly of these {{not a typo|scariths}}. While they included undecipherable uncial letters, attributed to an undiscovered ancient Etruscan characters; it was more difficult to defend the presence of small italic letters, for they were not used in the age assigned to them; besides that, there were dots on the letter ''i'', a custom not practiced till the eleventh century. The style was copied from the Latin of the Psalms and the Breviary.<ref>{{citation-attribution|1={{cite book |author=Isaac D'Israeli |title=Curiosities of Literature |publisher=J. Murray |year=1835 |volume=3 |page=57}} }}</ref> The Etruscan language was written in the wrong direction, and on paper, while all classical Roman historians have asserted that the Etruscans wrote their annals on linen cloth.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/books/a-true-whodunit-from-antiquity-with-devious-minds-much-like-todays.html|title=A True Whodunit From Antiquity With Devious Minds Much Like Today's|first=William|last=Grimes|author-link=William Grimes (journalist)|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 5, 2005}}</ref><ref>The best preserved example of an Etruscan linen book is the ''Liber Linteus''. The fabric of the book was preserved when it was used for mummy wrappings in Ptolemaic Egypt.</ref>
The work was publicly denounced for the first time in Méric Casaubon’s ''A treatise of use and custome'' (London, 1638). Leo Allatius definitively demonstrated that all the texts were fake in his polemic ''Animadversiones in antiquitatum etruscarum fragmenta'' (Paris, 1640), a work of considerable importance for the development of codicology.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Melchior Inchofer, "Un homme fin & rusé"|first=Thomas|last=Cerbu|journal=Largo Campo di Filosofare: Eurosymposium Galileo 2001|location=Las Palmas de Gran Canaria|publisher=Fundación Canaria Orotava|year=2001|page=599}}</ref> Nonetheless, Inghirami continued to advocate the authenticity of his work publishing a response in 1645. In 1985, the scarith were stolen from the Palazzo Inghirami, Volterra by thieves who mistook them for authentic documents. Despite being a fake, this work had the merit of "focusing the scholars' attention on Etruscan archaeology, also anticipating the elevation of this civilisation's culture and the anti-roman attitude that are characteristic of XVIII century Etruscology".<ref>transl. from: {{cite book |first=Mario|last=Speroni |title=La tutela dei beni culturali negli stati italiani preunitari: L'età delle riforme |publisher=A. Giuffrè |year=1988 |isbn=9788814017261 |page=72}}</ref>
== Works == * {{Cite book|publisher= |language= la |last= Inghirami |first= Curzio |title= Etruscarum antiquitatum fragmenta |location= Francofurti |access-date= 6 April 2020 |date= 1637 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cKO6DM_3G5EC }} * {{Cite book|publisher= per Amadore Massi, e Lorenzo Landi |language= it |last= Inghirami |first= Curzio |title= Discorso di Curzio Inghirami sopra l'opposizioni fatte all'antichità toscane diuiso in dodici trattati |location= Firenze |access-date= 6 April 2020 |date= 1645 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9chhl3ja1XcC }}
== Notes == <references />
== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book |last=Rowland |first=Ingrid D.|author-link=Ingrid D. Rowland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SUeF5fnFjkC |title=The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery |date=2004 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226730363 |language=en}} * {{cite journal|language=de|last=Deitz|first=Luc|title=Die Scarith von Scornello: Fälschung und Methode in Curzio Inghiramis 'Ethruscarum antiquitatum fragmenta' (1637)|journal=Neulateinisches Jahrbuch|date=2003|issue=5|pages=103–133}} * {{cite journal|journal=Storia dell'arte|issue=133|first=Camilla|last=Fiore|title="I seem to go wandering sweetly for Etruria". Discoveries and antiquarian nature of Etruria by Curzio Inghirami and Athanasius Kircher|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298415861|issn=0392-4513|pages=53–81|year=2012}} * « Inghirami, Curzio », ''Enciclopedia Treccani'', 15 March 2011 [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/curzio-inghirami/ Online] {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inghirami, Curzio}} Category:1655 deaths Category:1614 births Category:15th-century Italian historians Category:Etruscologists Category:People from Volterra Category:Italian archaeologists Category:Archaeological forgery