Talk:Tobia Nicotra

A fact from Tobia Nicotra appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 September 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra once toured the United States impersonating conductor Riccardo Drigo, who had died two years earlier?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2022/September. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Tobia Nicotra.

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 07:39, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra sold to the Library of Congress some of his forgeries that experts had "accepted as genuine"? Source: The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal (pages 288-289): In 1928 the Library of Congress paid $60–a rather low price for a real document of the period–for several supposedly unpublished Mozart autographs that several Mozart experts had accepted as genuine.
- ALT1: ... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra tore pages from authentic manuscripts at Milanese libraries to use for his forgeries? Source: The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal (pages 289): ...Nicotra's method was to acquire old paper by visiting the Milan Library, where he tore the flyleaves from old books or stole pages from manuscripts. He then added the "autographs" of famous musicians to these papers.
- ALT2: ... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra used a quill with iron-gall ink to make his forgeries appear more authentic? Source: Mozart, Pergolesi, Handel?: A Study of Three Forgeries (page 64): "The manuscript is on laid paper and was most likely penned with a quill and iron-gall ink, which all point to the document’s authenticity..."
- ALT3: ... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra brought one of his forgeries to an expert, who verified it as authentic? Source: Mozart, Pergolesi, Handel?: A Study of Three Forgeries (page 1): "Once, Nicotra himself took his “poem by Tasso” to experts, saying that he found the manuscript and thought it might be a forgery. The “experts” assured him that it was definitely authentic."
- ALT4: ... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra once toured the United States impersonating conductor Riccardo Drigo? Source: Pergolesi: research, publication, and performance (page 10, footnote 6), in Studi Pergolesi: The proceedings of the International Symposium 'The Present State of Studies on Pergolesi and his Times': "In 1932, he toured the United States at the head of a salon orchestra posing as the then popular composer Ricardo Drigo who had died two years earlier!"
- ALT5: ... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra forged documents he attributed to Christopher Columbus, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington? Source: Pergolesi: research, publication, and performance (page 10, footnote 6), in Studi Pergolesi: The proceedings of the International Symposium 'The Present State of Studies on Pergolesi and his Times': "In addition, he created fake writings by Martin Luther, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, ..." and A Watermark, and 'Spidey Sense,' Unmask a Forged Galileo Treasure
- ALT6: ... that jailed Italian forger Tobia Nicotra was paroled early by the National Fascist Party in Italy so he could forge signatures for them? Source: Toscanini: Musician of Conscience (chapter 22): "But he was paroled early: the Fascists needed him to forge their enemies' signatures on incriminating documents."
- ALT7: ... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra wrote a biography of conductor Arturo Toscanini that was filled with mistakes and invented conversations? Source: Toscanini: Musician of Conscience (chapter 22): "...led to the publication of a biography of Toscanini, during his 1929 stay in the country. The author, Tobia Nicotra,...It is superficial and full of errors and invented conversations."
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Charlie Bartson

Created by Mindmatrix (talk). Self-nominated at 12:41, 22 August 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Review underway... Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 14:49, 2 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The article was created on 19 August 2022 directly in mainspace and was nominated 3 days later, within DYK timescales.
Article is long enough and avoids close paraphrasing and similar issues. It is comprehensive enough: it seems that very little is known about his personal life
Neutral, and no BLP concerns, as he is no longer alive.
A good range of strong sources is used and correctly cited. I note that no title is available for the exact article in the American Musicological Society publication. A number are not available online so I will accept on good faith.
No images used.
QPQ done.
Hook verification: Original, ALT1, ALT4, ALT6 and ALT7 on good faith; ALT2, ALT3 and ALT5 verified by online means. All hooks are short enough.

A most interesting read. All hooks are fine to use, but I wonder if ALT4 could be made even more eye-catching by noting that Riccardo Drigo was already dead when he was being impersonated... I will leave the selection up to the prep-builder. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 15:19, 2 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Hassocks5489: How about ALT4a as a replacement for ALT4?
- ALT4a: ... that prolific Italian forger Tobia Nicotra once toured the United States impersonating conductor Riccardo Drigo, who had died two years earlier? Source: Pergolesi: research, publication, and performance (page 10, footnote 6), in Studi Pergolesi: The proceedings of the International Symposium 'The Present State of Studies on Pergolesi and his Times': "In 1932, he toured the United States at the head of a salon orchestra posing as the then popular composer Ricardo Drigo who had died two years earlier!"
Regarding the 1937 American Musicological Society source, I believe I found it on Google Books, but it did not have a preview, only a "from inside the book" snippet, so I was unable to get the information for the paper within that volume (specifically, the title and author). Mind matrix 17:55, 2 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Happy to verify ALT4A as well. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 18:19, 2 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]