Dissecting a Forgery: Petronius, Dante, and the Incas

Abstract:This article argues that a letter attributed to the Jesuit missionary and chronicler Blas Valera, sometimes dated to 1618, was written in the 20th century. A study of the Latin text shows that it is a patchwork of literary sources, including Petronius' Satyricon, the letters of Politian, a treatise by the Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino and Dante's Latin essays and letters. Linguistic analysis, source criticism and the transmission of those sources, particularly Petronius and Dante, show that Exsul Immeritus is inauthentic and date the forgery, on those grounds, to the second half of the 20th century.