Editing Anachronism (section)

==Detection of forgery==
The ability to identify anachronisms may be employed as a critical and forensic tool to demonstrate the fraudulence of a document or artifact purporting to be from an earlier time. [[Anthony Grafton]] discusses, for example, the work of the 3rd-century philosopher [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], of [[Isaac Casaubon]] (1559–1614), and of [[Richard August Reitzenstein|Richard Reitzenstein]] (1861–1931), all of whom succeeded in exposing literary forgeries and plagiarisms, such as those included in the "[[Hermetica|Hermetic Corpus]]", through – among other techniques – the recognition of anachronisms.<ref>Grafton 1990, pp. 75–98.</ref> The detection of anachronisms is an important element within the scholarly discipline of [[diplomatics]], the critical analysis of the forms and language of documents, developed by the [[Maurist]] scholar [[Jean Mabillon]] (1632–1707) and his successors [[René-Prosper Tassin]] (1697–1777) and [[Charles-François Toustain]] (1700–1754). The philosopher and reformer [[Jeremy Bentham]] wrote at the beginning of the 19th century:
{{blockquote|The falsehood of a writing will often be detected, by its making direct mention of, or allusions more or less indirect to, some fact posterior to the date which it bears. ... ''The mention of posterior facts;'' – first indication of forgery.<br>
In a living language there are always variations in words, in the meaning of words, in the construction of phrases, in the manner of spelling, which may detect the age of a writing, and lead to legitimate suspicions of forgery. ... ''The use of words not used till after the date of the writing;'' – second indication of forgery.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jeremy |last=Bentham |author-link=Jeremy Bentham |title=A Treatise on Judicial Evidence |editor-first=Étienne |editor-last=Dumont |editor-link=Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont |place=London |publisher=Baldwin, Cradock and Joy |year=1825 |page=[https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonjudi00dumogoog/page/n160 140] |url=https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonjudi00dumogoog}}</ref>}}

Examples are:
* The exposure by [[Lorenzo Valla]] in 1440 of the so-called [[Donation of Constantine]], a decree purportedly issued by the [[Roman Emperor|Emperor]] [[Constantine the Great]] in either 315 or 317 AD, as a later forgery, depended to a considerable degree on the identification of anachronisms, such as references to the city of [[Constantinople]] (a name not in fact bestowed until 330 AD).
* A large number of apparent [[anachronisms in the Book of Mormon]] have convinced critics that the book was written in the 19th century, and not, as its adherents claim, in [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] America.
* The use of 19th- and 20th-century [[antisemitism|anti-semitic]] terminology demonstrates that the purported "[[Franklin Prophecy]]" (attributed to [[Benjamin Franklin]], who died in 1790) is a forgery.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adl.org/special_reports/franklin_prophecy/print.asp |title=Anti-Semitic Myth: The Franklin "Prophecy" |publisher=Adl.org |access-date=2013-02-01}}</ref>
* The "[[William Lynch speech]]", an address, supposedly delivered in 1712, on the control of slaves in [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]], is now considered to be a 20th-century forgery, partly on account of its use of anachronistic terms such as "program" and "refueling".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/question/may04.htm |title=Is Willie Lynch's Letter Real? |last=Cobb |first=W. Jelani |year=2004 |access-date=27 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160219014338/http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/question/may04.htm |archive-date=2016-02-19 |url-status=dead}}</ref>