Exhibition: Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates
Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates
3 September 2025 through 31 March 2026
Whether print or digital, text or image, artistic or scientific, rare or common, historic or contemporary, most of the content we encounter contains accidental mistakes–ranging from typos to factual errors to errors arising from prejudicial assumptions–and a significant proportion of it also contains deliberate misinformation resulting from various forms of forgery, fakery, and piracy. We can all become better readers and better at protecting ourselves from scammers by improving our understanding of the nature of the content before us. This exhibition introduces the work of notorious and lesser-known forgers, it reveals the various ways in which experts and authors have faked their own identities over the centuries–ranging from carefully-selected pseudonyms to falsified ethnicities to fraudulent credentials–and it explores a number of shady publishing practices. We may find ourselves laughing out loud at the wide variety of weird and wacky enterprises, many of which have been reinvented for each successive generation and every new technology over centuries.
Check out this free exhibition at Bruce Peel Special Collections (basement of Rutherford South), which is open for drop-in visitors on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons (1-4pm). Monday afternoons are set aside for group exhibition visits, which can be requested by writing to us at bpsc@ualberta.ca. Detailed information about the Peel library's hours can be found under NEWS on the Peel website here.
The book/catalogue that accompanies this exhibition can be purchased in person in the Peel library for $40 (cash only, no dealers) or through University of Alberta Press or Indigo.
Many of the rare books shown in this exhibition can be viewed digitally (for free) thanks to our colleagues at University of Alberta Library and at other libraries around the world. You will find links here.
Peel Workshops (Sept-Oct 2025)
Peel Workshops, September-October 2025
Peel Workshop participants have found it deeply rewarding to work with primary materials, to learn about the history of books and ideas in various disciplines, to hold special rare items in their hands, and to discover what kinds of knowledge can be gleaned from the material objects themselves.
We are pleased to offer smaller in-person and larger online workshops to members of the U of A community.
Advance online registration is required, and opens at 8am on September 2nd.
Saved From the Fire
Teeny Marvels
10:00-11:00am on Friday, 19 September 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Secrets to Success in Archival Research
12:00-1:30pm on Tuesday, 23 September 2025 (online/ZOOM)
Teeny Marvels
10:00-11:00am on Wednesday, 24 September 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Poison Books
10:00-11:30am on Wednesday, 1 October 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Medium and Message: Publishing Formats Through the Ages
12:00-1:00pm on Thursday, 2 October 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Making Marbled Paper
2:00-3:30pm on Monday, 6 October 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Poison Books
2:00-3:30pm on Tuesday, 7 October 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Making Marbled Paper
11:00am-12:30pm on Friday, 10 October 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Fish Out of Water: 700 Years of Fishes on the Page
10:30am-12n on Thursday, 16 October 2025 (online/ZOOM)
Celebrating the 2025 re-launch of the expanded digital exhibition!
Where Do Our Ideas About Witchcraft Come From?
6:00-7:30pm on Thursday, 30 October 2025 (online/ZOOM)
Halloween costumes optional!
11:00am-12:30pm on Friday, 10 October 2025 at Bruce Peel Special Collections
Fish Out of Water: 700 Years of Fishes on the Page
10:30am-12n on Thursday, 16 October 2025 (online/ZOOM)
Celebrating the 2025 re-launch of the expanded digital exhibition!
Where Do Our Ideas About Witchcraft Come From?
6:00-7:30pm on Thursday, 30 October 2025 (online/ZOOM)
Halloween costumes optional!
More information about Peel Workshops
is available on the website for Bruce Peel
Special Collections, along with information
about Peel's research collections,
exhibitions, services, and hours.
Peel's hours and services
HOURS & SERVICES AT BRUCE PEEL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
EXHIBITION HOURS (September through March)
Mondays 1-4pm: Reserved for prearranged group visitsTuesdays: Closed
Wednesdays-Fridays 1-4pm: Open for drop-in visits
RESEARCH HOURS (September through March)
Mondays: No research appointments
Tuesdays 1-4pm: Reserved for quiet research, by appointment
Wednesdays-Fridays 1-4pm: By appointment
Mondays: No research appointments
Tuesdays 1-4pm: Reserved for quiet research, by appointment
Wednesdays-Fridays 1-4pm: By appointment
Questions? Please write to us at bpsc@ualberta.ca
Note: Peel is closed on statutory holidays and on Thursday, September 25th for an event.
To view rare materials held in Bruce Peel Special Collections, please write to us at bpsc@ualberta.ca to request a research appointment well in advance, listing the requested materials including author, title, and call number for each item, and offering some date options. We book research appointments during the regular academic year, September-March, on a first-come, first-served basis, so there may be a delay, but we will do our best to be accommodating. Standard reading room policies and protocols, designed to protect rare materials, are in force.
Remote Research Services: The Peel team serves researchers' needs remotely by answering questions about rare materials, providing researchers with images of materials not otherwise available (whenever possible), and providing links to digital resources that may help to meet current research and teaching needs (see "Peel materials online"). If you have questions that relate to materials housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections, you can send us an email at bpsc@ualberta.ca.
Visiting Researchers: If you are planning to travel to the Edmonton area to carry out research at Bruce Peel Special Collections, we strongly recommend that you do so during the regular academic year to avoid our limited summer service period. Regardless of when you plan to visit, it is important to contact us at bpsc@ualberta.ca well in advance so that we have every opportunity to accommodate your needs.
Like other locations of the University of Alberta Library, Bruce Peel Special Collections is open to all researchers, including faculty, staff, students, and members of the general public.
Where do ideas about witchcraft come from?
Explore early ideas about witchcraft by learning about a very rare (and sinister) fifteenth-century manuscript housed in University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections.
Tinctor's Foul Treatise is an award-winning digital exhibition that unlocks the secrets of this special manuscript. The exhibition was mounted in October 2016 by University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections, and it is the winner of the prestigious 2018 Leab Award (Electronic Exhibitions) from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the American Library Association.
The Arras Witch Treatises is a full English-language translation of two important fifteenth-century source texts (Tinctor's Invectives and the anonymous Recollectio) prepared by the curators of Tinctor's Foul Treatise and published by Pennsylvania State University Press (2016) as part of their Magic in History series. This edition is available through University of Alberta Library (BF 1582 A155 2016) and is widely available for sale.
Get a close digital look—through Internet Archive—at the copy of Tinctor's Invectives housed in University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections.
You can still check out Tinctor's Foul Manual online, a one-hour documentary produced by Paul Kennedy for the CBC's Ideas that has been aired numerous times, most recently on 2 August 2016.
Read "The Travels of a Fifteenth-Century Demonological Manuscript: The University of Alberta's Copy of Jean Taincture's Invectives contre la secte de vaudrie," by Robert Desjardins, Francois Pageau, and Andrew Gow. Florilgelium 33 (26 Aug 2019).
Check out Paula Simons' fascinating exploration of the ways that old ideas about witchcraft continue to haunt us today: "Politics, Powerful Women and Hunting Witches in a New Age of Superstition," Edmonton Journal (29 Oct 2016). This story helpfully links to a relevant story by Simons: "Witch History takes flight in Rare Manuscript at U of A," Edmonton Journal (27 Oct 2012), and a related blog post "The Witch-Burner's Mein Kampf: Excerpts of Evil" (Oct 2012).
Or read this recent article, one of many, that asks if justice is now possible for those wrongly tortured and executed: "300 Years On, Will Thousands of Women Burned as Witches Finally Get Justice?" The Guardian (13 Sept 2020).
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