Diploma of Doctor of Medicine, for John (Wallace?), Padua University
TitleDiploma of Doctor of Medicine, for John (Wallace?), Padua University
ReferenceMS702
Date
1618 or 1628
CreatorUnknown
Production date 1618 - 1628
Scope and ContentDate of 1628 written in the text of the diploma is not possible due to the death of one of the signatories before then and another signatory (Sanctorius) no longer being a university professor.
2016 Summer - The Wallace's Diploma is a Fake, it belonged to someone else. In fact, the original owner was a certain Johannes, whose surname has been erased and substituted with Wallaceus. Also the date is a fake, because in 1628 Fabrici d’Acquapendente and Adrian van de Spiegel were both dead (respectively 1619 and 1625) and Santorio was no longer the chair of the Collegio Veneto, neither taught at the university. The true date was probably 1618, not 1628 as the first ‘x’ has been added to disguise the original date, which has also been erased.
Fabrizio Bigotti
Wellcome Trust Research Fellow
Centre for Medical History - University of Exeter
Room 326, Amory Building, Rennes Drive
Exeter EX4 4RJ UK
2016 Winter - Later investigation discovered that when the item was presented to the RCP the fact that it was a fake was confirmed by identifying the original recipient. This was John Dunbar, a graduate of Edinburgh University in 1604, who decided to study medicine at Padua and graduated there in 1618. Dunbar [c. 1585 - 1626] was a poet in 1616 and published a volume at London entitled Epigrammaton Ioannis Dunbari Megalo-Britanni Centuriae Sex, Decades totidem. After gaining the M.D. at Padua he apparently practiced medicine in Plymouth until his death.
2016 Summer - The Wallace's Diploma is a Fake, it belonged to someone else. In fact, the original owner was a certain Johannes, whose surname has been erased and substituted with Wallaceus. Also the date is a fake, because in 1628 Fabrici d’Acquapendente and Adrian van de Spiegel were both dead (respectively 1619 and 1625) and Santorio was no longer the chair of the Collegio Veneto, neither taught at the university. The true date was probably 1618, not 1628 as the first ‘x’ has been added to disguise the original date, which has also been erased.
Fabrizio Bigotti
Wellcome Trust Research Fellow
Centre for Medical History - University of Exeter
Room 326, Amory Building, Rennes Drive
Exeter EX4 4RJ UK
2016 Winter - Later investigation discovered that when the item was presented to the RCP the fact that it was a fake was confirmed by identifying the original recipient. This was John Dunbar, a graduate of Edinburgh University in 1604, who decided to study medicine at Padua and graduated there in 1618. Dunbar [c. 1585 - 1626] was a poet in 1616 and published a volume at London entitled Epigrammaton Ioannis Dunbari Megalo-Britanni Centuriae Sex, Decades totidem. After gaining the M.D. at Padua he apparently practiced medicine in Plymouth until his death.
Extent14 pp.
LanguageLatin
SubjectEducation
Levelfile