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A FAKE OR GENUINE ARTEFACT? THE PARIAN CHRONICLE AND PERCEPTIONS OF AUTHENTICITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2019

Peter N Lindfield
Peter N Lindfield*
Affiliation:
Berllan Bach, Ffordd Las, Llandyrnog, Denbighshire, LL16 4LR, UK. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

A remarkable controversy raged in the late 1780s concerning the authenticity of the Parian Chronicle, a supposedly genuine carved fragment recording ancient Greek history that was included in the 1667 Arundel bequest to the University of Oxford. Drawing in figures in British antiquarianism, including Richard Gough who, as Director of the Society of Antiquaries of London, intervened in the debate with a pamphlet that came out in support of the artefact’s authenticity, this was an important moment in eighteenth-century antiquarian study. Hot on the heels of the now much more well-known Ossian controversy of the 1760s, the Chatterton–Rowley–Walpole debacle from 1770, Chatterton’s subsequent death and the publication of his forgeries from 1777, the literature variously refuting and supporting the Parian Chronicle’s authenticity strikes at the heart of antiquarianism, in particular opening up to dispute assumptions made about or accepted interpretations concerning the authenticity of the fragments upon which subsequent antiquarian work and interpretation was based. This debate took the form of a very public attack upon, and defence of, the Parian Chronicle’s status as a genuine third-century bc antiquarian fragment, and the controversy within antiquarian circles that it occasioned is reconstructed here.

Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 99 , September 2019 , pp. 271 - 295
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London, 2019 

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References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Lindfield, P N 2016. ‘Heraldry and the architectural imagination: John Carter’s visualisation of the Castle of Otranto ’, Antiq J, 96, 1–23 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macpherson, J 1760. Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and Translated from the Galic or Erse Language, printed for G Hamilton and J Balfour, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Pearce, S 2007. ‘Antiquaries and the interpretation of ancient objects, 1770–1820’, Archaeol, 111, 146–71Google Scholar
Reeve, M 2013. ‘Dickie Bateman and the Gothicization of Old Windsor: architecture and sexuality in the circle of Horace Walpole’, Architect Hist, 56, 99–133 Google Scholar
Robertson, J 1782. An Introduction to the Study of Polite Literature, NP, London Google Scholar
Robertson, J 1785. An Essay on Punctuation, printed for J Walter, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, J 1788. The Parian Chronicle, or the Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles, with a Dissertation Concerning Its Authenticity, J Walter, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, J 1798. An Essay on the Education of Young Ladies, printed for T Cadell Jr and W Davies, in the Strand, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, J 1799. An Essay on the Nature of the English Verse, with Directions for Reading Poetry, NP, London Google Scholar
Robinson, J M 2012. James Wyatt (1746–1813): architect to George III, published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, New Haven and LondonGoogle Scholar
Scott, J 2003. The Pleasures of Antiquity: British collectors of Greece and Rome, Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, New Haven Google Scholar
Selden, J 1628–9. Marmora Arundelliana; Siue Saxa Græcè Incisa Ex Venerandis Priscæ Orientis Gloriæ Ruderibus, Auspicijs & Impensis Herois Illustriss, Joannem Billium, London Google Scholar
Stafford, F J 1988. The Sublime Savage: a study of James Macpherson and the poems of Ossian, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh Google Scholar
Starkey, D 2007. ‘Making history’, in Gaimster, D, McCarthy, S and Nurse, B (eds), Making History: antiquaries in Britain 1707–2007, Royal Academy of Arts, London Google Scholar
Sweet, R 2004. Antiquaries: the discovery of the past in eighteenth-century Britain, Continuum, London Google Scholar
The Author of the Dissert. on the P. C. (Joseph Robertson) 1790. ‘To the editor of the European Magazine ’, European Mag, London Rev, 17 (March), 206–8Google Scholar
The Author of the Parian Chronicle (Joseph Robertson) 1789a. ‘To the editor of the European Magazine ’, European Mag, London Rev, 16 (July), 19–21 Google Scholar
The Author of the Parian Chronicle (Joseph Robertson) 1789b. ‘To the editor of the European Magazine ’, European Mag, London Rev, 16 (August), 120–4Google Scholar
Valerie, I J F 1979. ‘The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth: parody and its purpose – a suggestion’, Speculum, 54 (3), 447–68Google Scholar
Vickers, M 2006. The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford, Ashmolean Museum Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Walpole, H 1762. Anecdotes of Painting in England, with Some Account of the Principal Artists, and Notes on Other Arts, Collected by G. Vertue, and Now Digested from His MSS, Strawberry Hill, LondonGoogle Scholar
Walpole, H 1764. The Castle of Otranto: a Gothic story, printed for William Bathoe, LondonGoogle Scholar
Walpole, H 1937. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed Lewis, W S and Wallace, A D, i, Oxford University Press, London Google Scholar
Walpole, H 1951. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed Lewis, W S, Wallace, A D, Zouch, H and Williams, R M, xvi, Oxford University Press, London Google Scholar
Walpole, H 1955. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed Lewis, W S, Cronin, G Jr and Bennett, C H, xxviii, Oxford University Press, London Google Scholar
Yarker, J and Hornsby, C 2011. ‘A speculative grand tour excavation: Aubrey Beauclerk, Thomas Brand and Thomas Jenkins at Centocelle’, Brit Art J, 11 (3), 21–9Google Scholar
Ashmolean Museum, Howard Gift 1667, Chandler 2.59Google Scholar
British Museum, OA.4710Google Scholar
Scottish Record Office, MS GD 18, 5030/11, 15Google Scholar
Society of Antiquaries of London, MS 265Google Scholar
A Constant Reader 1788. ‘In your last magazine’, Gentleman’s Mag, 58 (May), 409–10Google Scholar
A Lover of Antiquities 1785. ‘The author of a very ingenious and elegant production’, Gentleman’s Mag, 55 (July), 530–1Google Scholar
Anon 1788a. ‘The author of this dissertation’, Gentleman’s Mag, 58 (April), 338 Google Scholar
Anon 1788b. ‘The Parian Chronicle; or, the Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles, with a dissertation concerning its authenticity (i)’, Monthly Rev, 79 (October), 251–7Google Scholar
Anon 1788c. ‘The Parian Chronicle; or, the Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles, with a dissertation concerning its authenticity (i)’, European Mag, London Rev, 13 (June), 411–14Google Scholar
Anon 1788d. ‘The Parian Chronicle; or, the Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles, with a dissertation concerning its authenticity (ii)’, European Mag, London Rev, 14 (July), 20–5Google Scholar
Anon 1789a. ‘In this sceptical age’, Gentleman’s Mag, 59 (January), 49–52 Google Scholar
Anon 1789b. ‘The Parian Chronicle; or, the Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles, with a dissertation concerning its authenticity (ii)’, Monthly Rev, 82 (January), 38–47 Google Scholar
Anon 1796. ‘An account of James Macpherson, Esq.’, European Mag, London Rev, 29 (May), 305–7Google Scholar
Baines, P 1999. The House of Forgery in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ashgate, Aldershot Google Scholar
Chatterton, T 1777. Poems, Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century, printed for T Payne and Son, LondonGoogle Scholar
Clark, K 1962. The Gothic Revival: an essay in the history of taste, J Murray, London Google Scholar
Clarke, S 2011. The Strawberry Hill Press and its Printing House: an account and iconography, The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Press, New Haven Google Scholar
Colley, L 1992. Britons: forging the nation, 1707–1837, Yale University Press, London Google Scholar
Colvin, H 2009. ‘Henry Flitcroft, William Kent and Shobdon Church, Herefordshire’, in Jones, D and McKinstry, S (eds), Essays in Scots and English Architectural History: a festschrift in honour of John Frew, 1–8, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar
Crook, J M 1995. John Carter and the Mind of the Gothic Revival, W S Maney & Son in Association with the Society of Antiquaries of London, LondonGoogle Scholar
Evans, J 1956. A History of the Society of Antiquaries, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Frew, J M 1979. ‘Richard Gough, James Wyatt, and late 18th-century preservation’, J Soc Architect Hist, 38 (4), 366–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, R 1780. British Topography, Or, an Historical Account of What Has Been Done for Illustrating the Topographical Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland, printed for T Payne and Son and J Nichols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gough, R 1788. Observations in Vindication of the Authenticity of the Parian Chronicle, By Richard Gough, NP, LondonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groom, N 2005. ‘The death of Chatterton’, in Heys, A (ed), From Gothic to Romantic: Chatterton’s Bristol, Redcliffe Press, Bristol Google Scholar
Groom, N (ed) 2014. The Castle of Otranto: a Gothic story, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Hazen, A T and Lewis, W S 1969. A Catalogue of Horace Walpole’s Library, Yale University Press, New Haven Google Scholar
Hewlett, J 1788. Sermons on Different Subjects by the Rev. John Hewlett, printed for J F and C Rivington, and J Johnson, and C Dilly, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hewlett, J 1789a. A Vindication of the Authenticity of the Parian Chronicle, in Answer to a Dissertation on That Subject, Lately Published, printed for J Edwards, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hewlett, J 1789b. Answers to Some Critical Strictures Relative to the Controversy on the Authenticity of the Parian Chronicle, In a Letter to the Rev. J Robertson, Author of a Dissertation on That Subject, printed for J Edwards, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hewlett, J 1815. A Manual of Instruction and Devotion on the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, NP, London Google Scholar
Hewlett, J 1816. Commentaries and Annotations on the Holy Scriptures, NP, London Google Scholar
Hill, R 2016. ‘“Proceeding like Guy Faux”: The antiquarian investigation of St Stephen’s Chapel Westminster, 1790–1837’, Architect Hist, 59, 253–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, S 1755. A Dictionary of the English Language, In Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations, printed by W Strahan, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jones, M, Craddock, P and Barker, N (eds) 1990. Fake? The art of deception, British Museum Press, London Google Scholar
King, E 1784. A Speech Delivered by Edward King, Esq. President of the Society of Antiquaries of London, at Somerset Place, Printed by J Nichols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Lapierre, A 2004. Le Voleur d’éternité: La vie aventureuse de William Petty, érudit, esthéte et brigand, Laffont, Paris Google Scholar
Levine, J M 1991. Dr Woodward’s Shield: history, science and satire in Augustan England, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London Google Scholar
Lindfield, P N 2016. ‘Heraldry and the architectural imagination: John Carter’s visualisation of the Castle of Otranto ’, Antiq J, 96, 1–23 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macpherson, J 1760. Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and Translated from the Galic or Erse Language, printed for G Hamilton and J Balfour, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Pearce, S 2007. ‘Antiquaries and the interpretation of ancient objects, 1770–1820’, Archaeol, 111, 146–71Google Scholar
Reeve, M 2013. ‘Dickie Bateman and the Gothicization of Old Windsor: architecture and sexuality in the circle of Horace Walpole’, Architect Hist, 56, 99–133 Google Scholar
Robertson, J 1782. An Introduction to the Study of Polite Literature, NP, London Google Scholar
Robertson, J 1785. An Essay on Punctuation, printed for J Walter, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, J 1788. The Parian Chronicle, or the Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles, with a Dissertation Concerning Its Authenticity, J Walter, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, J 1798. An Essay on the Education of Young Ladies, printed for T Cadell Jr and W Davies, in the Strand, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, J 1799. An Essay on the Nature of the English Verse, with Directions for Reading Poetry, NP, London Google Scholar
Robinson, J M 2012. James Wyatt (1746–1813): architect to George III, published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, New Haven and LondonGoogle Scholar
Scott, J 2003. The Pleasures of Antiquity: British collectors of Greece and Rome, Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, New Haven Google Scholar
Selden, J 1628–9. Marmora Arundelliana; Siue Saxa Græcè Incisa Ex Venerandis Priscæ Orientis Gloriæ Ruderibus, Auspicijs & Impensis Herois Illustriss, Joannem Billium, London Google Scholar
Stafford, F J 1988. The Sublime Savage: a study of James Macpherson and the poems of Ossian, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh Google Scholar
Starkey, D 2007. ‘Making history’, in Gaimster, D, McCarthy, S and Nurse, B (eds), Making History: antiquaries in Britain 1707–2007, Royal Academy of Arts, London Google Scholar
Sweet, R 2004. Antiquaries: the discovery of the past in eighteenth-century Britain, Continuum, London Google Scholar
The Author of the Dissert. on the P. C. (Joseph Robertson) 1790. ‘To the editor of the European Magazine ’, European Mag, London Rev, 17 (March), 206–8Google Scholar
The Author of the Parian Chronicle (Joseph Robertson) 1789a. ‘To the editor of the European Magazine ’, European Mag, London Rev, 16 (July), 19–21 Google Scholar
The Author of the Parian Chronicle (Joseph Robertson) 1789b. ‘To the editor of the European Magazine ’, European Mag, London Rev, 16 (August), 120–4Google Scholar
Valerie, I J F 1979. ‘The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth: parody and its purpose – a suggestion’, Speculum, 54 (3), 447–68Google Scholar
Vickers, M 2006. The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford, Ashmolean Museum Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Walpole, H 1762. Anecdotes of Painting in England, with Some Account of the Principal Artists, and Notes on Other Arts, Collected by G. Vertue, and Now Digested from His MSS, Strawberry Hill, LondonGoogle Scholar
Walpole, H 1764. The Castle of Otranto: a Gothic story, printed for William Bathoe, LondonGoogle Scholar
Walpole, H 1937. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed Lewis, W S and Wallace, A D, i, Oxford University Press, London Google Scholar
Walpole, H 1951. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed Lewis, W S, Wallace, A D, Zouch, H and Williams, R M, xvi, Oxford University Press, London Google Scholar
Walpole, H 1955. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed Lewis, W S, Cronin, G Jr and Bennett, C H, xxviii, Oxford University Press, London Google Scholar
Yarker, J and Hornsby, C 2011. ‘A speculative grand tour excavation: Aubrey Beauclerk, Thomas Brand and Thomas Jenkins at Centocelle’, Brit Art J, 11 (3), 21–9Google Scholar
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