Treasured Galileo manuscript is a forgery, University of Michigan says

Galileo Galilei and his telescope. The fake document purported to be a letter presenting his telescope along with notes on his observations of Jupiter. Photograph: Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis/Getty Images

For nearly a century, the University of Michigan library kept what was understood to be a manuscript written by the astronomer Galileo Galilei. But now, after an internal investigation, the school believes that document was a fake.

The university announced on Tuesday that the so-called “Galileo manuscript” – a one-page document that includes a letter accompanying the astronomer’s presentation of his telescope and his supposed notes observing Jupiter’s moons through his telescope in 1610 – was crafted by Tobia Nicotra, a well-known forger from Italy who was fined and sentenced to two years in jail for crafting fake Galileo documents in 1934. He also infamously produced fake autographs of Christopher Columbus and Mozart.