Manufacturing a Past for the Present: Forgery and Authenticity in Medievalist Texts and Objects in Nineteenth-Century Europe(7 National Cultivation of Culture)

In search of specific national traditions nineteenth-century artists and scholars did not shy of manipulating texts and objects or even outright manufacturing them. The essays edited by János M. Bak, Patrick J. Geary and Gábor Klaniczay explore the various artifacts from outright forgeries to fruits of poetic phantasy, while also discussing the volatile notion of authenticity and the multiple claims for it in the age.

Contributors include: Pavlína Rychterová, Péter Dávidházi, Pertti Anttonen, László Szörényi, János M. Bak, Nóra Berend, Benedek Láng, Igor P. Medvedev, Dan D.Y. Shapira, János György Szilágyi, Cristina La Rocca, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, Johan Hegardt and Sándor Radnóti.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements ... vii The Long Shadow of Ossian. Editors' Preface ... viii List of Figures ... xxv Notes on Contributors ... xxviii PART ONE SEARCHING FOR THE VOICE OF THE NATION 1 The Manuscripts of Grünberg and Königinhof: Romantic Lies about the Glorious Past of the Czech Nation ... 3 Pavlína Rychterová 2 To Authenticate a Manuscript: The Case of Toldy and Hanka, Hermeneutically Reconsidered ... 31 Péter Dávidházi 3 The Kalevala and the Authenticity Debate ... 56 Pertti Anttonen 4 János Arany’s Csaba Trilogy and Arnold Ipolyi’s Hungarian Mythology ... 81 László Szörényi 5 From the Anonymous Gesta to the Flight of Zalán by Vörösmarty ... 96 János M. Bak PART TWO INVENTING A PAST 6 Forging the Cuman Law, Forging an Identity ... 109 Nora Berend 7 Invented Middle Ages in Nineteenth-century Hungary. The Forgeries of Sámuel Literáti Nemes ... 129 Benedek Láng 8 Excellent Scholar—Excellent Forger: The Case of Karl Benedict Hase ... 144 Igor P. Medvedev 9 On Firkowicz, Forgeries and Forging Jewish Identities ... 156 Dan D. Y. Shapira PART THREE “ANCIENT” OBJECTS: FAKES AND PHANTASIES 10 Wisest is Time: Ancient Vase Forgeries ... 173 János György Szilágyi 11 Agilulf, “The Nonexistent Knight” and the Forging of the Italian “Germanic” Past ... 224 Cristina La Rocca 12 Imagining the Real: Material Evidence and Participatory Past in Nineteenth-Century Lithuania ... 267 Giedrė Mickūnaitė 13 Time Stopped. The Open-air Museum Skansen of Artur Hazelius ... 287 Johan Hegardt 14 The New York Cloisters: A Forgery? ... 307 Sándor Radnóti Index of Proper Names ... 317

About the Author :
János M. Bak is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Central European University, Budapest. He published extensively on medieval rulership, laws, symbology of power; his most recent volume is Studying Rulers and their Subjects (Variorum, 2010).
     
Patrick J. Geary is Professor of Medieval European History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has published numerous books and essays on medieval social and cultural history including The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton, 2002).
     
Gábor Klaniczay is Professor of Medieval Studies at the Central European University, Budapest. He has published numerous books and essays on the historical anthropology of Christianity, including Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses: Dynastic Cults in Medieval Central Europe (Cambridge, 2002).