IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN
My blog post of April 1st 2011 announced the frightful partial collapse, in the middle of the night, of the Quarry Visitor Center onto the dinosaur fossil exhibit. It was a successful April Fool’s joke because 1) this was about half way through an extensive 18 month demolition, rehabilitation, and reconstruction project on the building which I had been covering in detail in my posts and 2) nobody thought I would be enough of a jerk to joke about such a thing. Of course, those who actually read the entire one paragraph post through to the end came across the last sentence that revealed it was an April Fool’s joke. But some people panicked after the first few sentences and just began making phone calls.
Most people’s antennae are up when April 1st
rolls around and putting together a successful April Fool’s joke is really quite
difficult to do. There are many other
paleontology bloggers who do such posts quite well. Rather than fail badly at
that, today I’ll blog about a bit of fossil fakery from the early 18th
century. This is not fakery meant as a joke but intended to damage reputations
and motivated by academic and professional envy and desire for revenge.
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A PASSION FOR FOSSILS
Dr. Johann Bartholomew Adam Beringer (1667-1740) was a
successful physician, earning the titles of Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine,
Senior Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science of the University of Wurzburg
(Germany), Advisor and Chief
Physician to the Price-Bishop of Wurzburg, and
Chief Physician to the Julian
Hospital. Unfortunately
it seems that relatively little is known about his life. In addition to his high standing in society Beringer
was also an enthusiastic dilettante in fields other than medicine. It was his
fascination with oryctis (“things dug
from the earth”) that led to the scandal for which he is best known to modern
scientists and historians.
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| Lizard eating a fly: one of Beringer's original "Figured Stones". |
The early 18th century was a time of upheaval in
the science of paleontology. Long held classical theories about the nature and
meaning of fossils were being scrutinized and many new ideas about fossils,
some more realistic than others, were coming to the fore and being discussed and
debated. Beringer was interested in
fossils and had his own thoughts on these matters, although they would be
viewed as bizarre by modern scientific standards. But he was passionate and started
to compile a significant collection of fossils from all over Europe.
Although it is unclear when, Beringer hired several young
men, aged 14-18, to work with him on Mount
Eivelstadt and bring in any fossils they might find. Nothing of real significance was discovered
until May 31, 1725 when the first three of a long string of “fossils” were
brought to him. Beringer became very
excited by these fossils and the others that followed and amassed a large
collection. He felt he had made a
spectacular discovery, one well worth scientific description and publication
and one that would further enhance his reputation as a learned man.
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ACADEMIC HATRED AND FAKE FOSSILS
Occupying the Chair of Natural History at the University of Wurzburg placed Beringer in an academic setting. For reasons uncertain, he made enemies of some in the university. J. Ignatz Roderick was a university professor of geology, algebra, and analysis. George von Eckhart was privy counselor and librarian to the prince’s court and the university. Both despised Beringer, because as Roderick put it “… Beringer was so arrogant and despised them all.” They conspired to exploit Beringer’s passion for fossils in order to ruin him through fossil fakery.
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| Figured stones bearing butterflies and moths: lithograph from the Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. |
The plot involved carving fake fossils and either selling
them directly to Beringer or planting them on Mount Eivelstadt
where they would be found later by Beringer and his hired crew. At least one of that crew, Christian Zanger,
was brought into the plot and paid for his services. Roderick carved hundreds of fakes at least
some of which still survive. The fakes
included normal types of fossil organisms, leaves, flowers, beetles, wasps,
moths, butterflies, spiders, fogs birds,
snails, lizards, crabs, fish, etc. (not infrequently in copulito).
But many of the vertebrate fossils were not skeletons, but complete animals (such as birds with all their feathers).
More outrageous still were other fossil carvings of the Sun, the Moon, and shooting stars (with their tails!).
Finally, there are numerous blocks bearing Hebrew letters. These look patently fake to us but not so to Beringer. He recognized that they might be carved but found evidence to dismiss that concern. Since "with God all things are possible" he was not even deterred by the shooting stars or Hebrew letters.
His belief that they were not forgeries was due, in part, to the fact that he himself had excavated some of them on Mount Eivelstadt (without realizing that they had been planted). It was also due in part to Beringer’s ideas about the origin of fossils. He was committed to the idea that that God has put them into the earth, maybe for his own amusement, maybe to test the faith of believers, or maybe for reasons we can’t understand. Given those views, he was nonplussed by the occurrence of Hebrew letters and words.
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| Figured stones bearing spiders, some still in webs (!): lithograph from the Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. |
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| Figured stones bearing birds (left) and lizards (right): lithograph from the Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. |
But many of the vertebrate fossils were not skeletons, but complete animals (such as birds with all their feathers).
More outrageous still were other fossil carvings of the Sun, the Moon, and shooting stars (with their tails!).
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| Amazing figured stones bearing moons, suns, stars, and comets: lithograph from the Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. |
Finally, there are numerous blocks bearing Hebrew letters. These look patently fake to us but not so to Beringer. He recognized that they might be carved but found evidence to dismiss that concern. Since "with God all things are possible" he was not even deterred by the shooting stars or Hebrew letters.
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| If you believe anything you end up believing this. Figured stones bearing Hebrew letters and words: lithograph from the Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. |
His belief that they were not forgeries was due, in part, to the fact that he himself had excavated some of them on Mount Eivelstadt (without realizing that they had been planted). It was also due in part to Beringer’s ideas about the origin of fossils. He was committed to the idea that that God has put them into the earth, maybe for his own amusement, maybe to test the faith of believers, or maybe for reasons we can’t understand. Given those views, he was nonplussed by the occurrence of Hebrew letters and words.
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THE LITHOGRAPHIAE WIRCEBURGENSIS OF 1726
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| Image of actual title page of Lithographiae Wirceburgensis (1726). |
Convinced of the immense importance of his discoveries, Beringer proceeded to published a lengthy tome describing the fossils and discussing their origin and significance. Published in 1726, it was lavishly illustrated with lithographs of some 200 specimens. It was written in Latin, the language of the learned in those days (although an English translation by Jahn and Woolf was published in 1963). The title was exceeding long, slightly over 100 words. The first part, which constitutes the title of this post, translates as
“The Wurzburg
Lithography Illustrated with over two-hundred engravings of figured and
insectiform stones, First Exemplar”
Furthermore, Beringer proudly dedicated the work in honor of his patron
Bishop Christopher Franz, with the inscription
“To the Immortal Glory of the Most Reverend and Most High Prince and
Lord of The Holy Roman Empire Christopher Franz, Bishop of Wurzburg,
Duke of Franconia, Our Most Clement Princely
Lord and Master”
But Beringer’s fame didn’t last for long --- trouble started soon
after.
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AFTERMATH
How Beringer came to realize that all his precious fossils
from Mount Eivelstadt were fakes is uncertain, but
it occurred soon after the Lithographiae
Wirceburgensis was published. One
account is that it happened when he excavated a slab with his name carved in
Hebrew letters, but there is no historical evidence to corroborate that. At some point before publication of the book,
both Roderick and Eckhart became quite alarmed about what they had done. They feared
that they might suffer dire consequences should Beringer’s work appear in
print. Roderick and Eckhart made
repeated attempts to alert Beringer, even going so far as to sell him some fake
fossils and then telling him that they had carved them. But Beringer was so
convinced of the correctness of his own ideas that he simply dismissed them.
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| The gullible Johann Beringer. |
Regardless, by April 13, 1726 judicial proceedings were
underway against Roderick and Eckhart, proceedings instigated by Beringer to
save his honor. Transcripts of parts of the trial still exist (see Appendix B
in Jahn and Wolfe 1963). Not only was Beringer’s honor at stake but so was that
of the powerful Lord Christopher Franz, to
whom the work was dedicated.
The trial discredited Beringer. Some stories of the event have Beringer
spending all his fortune trying to buy back all the copies of his own book and
dying shortly after the trial. However,
we know that account to be false, because Beringer died some 14 years later in
1740. He had remained in his academic position at Wurzburg, publishing at least two additional
books.
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| George von Eckhart |
Eckhart lost his post and his library privileges, which was
disastrous for him because he was a well-known, and accomplished historian. Upon Eckhardt’s death four years
after the trial a number of his unpublished and unfinished manuscripts were
found in his estate.
Roderick soon left Wurzburg,
although whether as a result of being expelled or of his own volition is unclear. He evetually appealed
to Bishop Christopher Franz and was allowed to return to Wurzburg
in 1730 to help take care of parts of Eckhart’s estate. He was eventually permitted to again teach
geography and algebra.
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WHAT ABOUT THE FIGURED STONES?
The Lithographiae Wirceburgensis
contains lithographic plates showing some 200 figured stones and an unknown
number of others were collected before their real nature became known to
Beringer. I have not found an account of
what happened to the collection but originals are on exhibit at the Oxford University
Museum in England
and the Teylers Museum
in the Netherlands. Several years ago, while studying dinosaur
specimens in the Oxford Musuem, I purchased replicas of two of the stones in
the Museum gift shop. Photos of those replicas
are below.
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| Casts of two Beringer's Figured Stones. Right a fake slug. Left, carved marks including the number 7, an arrow, and a clay pipe among others. |
It’s hard to understand how Beringer, who already had a
sizeable collection of real fossils from around Europe,
could have failed to recognize these as fakes, especially after the fakers
admitted to carving them. But
self-deception and over confidence in one’s beliefs is part of the core of the Lithographiae Wirceburgensis story. That’s something to keep in mind even
when not studying fossils.
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SOURCES
Beringer, J.B.A. and Hueber, G.L. 1726. Lithographiæ
Wirceburgensis. Würzburg. Complete and digitized version of the original 1726 publication can be seen at http://amshistorica.unibo.it/3
Jahn, M.E. and Wolfe, D.J. 1963. The Lying Stones of Dr. Johann Batholomew Adam Beringer being his Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles: 221 pages. Translation of: Beringer, Johann; Hueber, George Ludwig (1726). Lithographiæ Wirceburgensis. Würzburg.
PHOTOS
Lizard eating fly: http://www.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/aktuelles/meldungen/single/artikel/die-wuerzb/
All lithographs from the Lithographiae Wirceburgensis: Jahn and Wolfe 1963.
Title page of Lithographiae
Wirceburgensis: http://amshistorica.unibo.it/3
Beringer: http://drabek.bigbloger.lidovky.cz/c/308496/Tajemna-tvoriva-sila-vis-plastica.html
Eckhart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_von_Eckhart
