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De la antigüedad del libro antiguo

Abstract

Contrary to what many believe, the concept of 'ancient book' is not a recent one. It was not born with the Enlightenment, nor with the Renaissance, nor with medieval Humanism, nor with classical Antiquity. It is immemorial and based on prestige: so much so that the counterfeiting and sale of manipulated or even non-existent 'ancient books' (because they are literary inventions), becomes a lucrative business. This paper proposes six representative examples: Ziusutra/Gilgamesh; the once lost Constitution of the Athenians; the copy of works of the great Greek authors of tragedies ordered by the Athenian Licurgos and coveted by Ptolemy II; the falsification of works of Aristotle and Hippocrates; the Sibylline Books of Rome; and the Nechronomicon of Al Hazred, imagined by Lovecraft.