La laminetta bronzea di Druso Minore conservata al Museo Provinciale di Torcello: un falso smascherato

This article examines in detail a small bronze tablet belonging to the collection of the Museo Provinciale di Torcello, near Venice. The tablet is inscribed on both sides and bears a dedication to Drusus the Younger, emperor Tiberius’ son who died in AD 23, plus some abbreviations that are diffi cult to expand. The object has long been considered to be genuine, however in more recent times its authenticity has been questioned. Internal analysis, which reveals some anomalous characteristics, supports these doubts, but the most convincing arguments are offered by comparison with other artefacts. In fact, previous editors failed to remark that several objects bearing the same text had already been registered and considered false by the curators of the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum. A vast survey conducted through a network of European museums demonstrates that nearly identical tablets are kept today in Arezzo, Madrid and Basel. It is likely that these counterfeit antiquities, whose inscribed words and letters reproduce with slight variations the texts that were readable on authentic inscriptions and coins, were actually created in Tuscany in the mid 18th century.

This article examines in detail a small bronze tablet belonging to the collection of the Museo Provinciale di Torcello, near Venice. The tablet is inscribed on both sides and bears a dedication to Drusus the Younger, emperor Tiberius' son who died in AD 23, plus some abbreviations that are difficult to expand. The object has long been considered to be genuine, however in more recent times its authenticity has been questioned. Internal analysis, which reveals some anomalous characteristics, supports these doubts, but the most convincing arguments are offered by comparison with other artefacts. In fact, previous editors failed to remark that several objects bearing the same text had already been registered and considered false by the curators of the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum. A vast survey conducted through a network of European museums demonstrates that nearly identical tablets are kept today in Arezzo, Madrid and Basel. It is likely that these counterfeit antiquities, whose inscribed words and letters reproduce with slight variations the texts that were readable on authentic inscriptions and coins, were actually created in Tuscany in the mid 18th century.