Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1908-02-18
A CELEBRATED HOAX,
Story of the Fortsas Catalogue
and Its Author.
CLEVER AND BRAZEN FRAUD,
This Ingenious Publication Completely
Fooled the Savants and BibfiophiIes
of Europe and Was the Literary Sen
sation of Its Day.
ON us when You are in town

Fooled the Savants and BibfiophiIes
of Europe and Was the Literary Sen
sation of Its Day.
When P. T. Barnum cynically re-
marked that the American people
loved to be fooled he might just a.
we'll have left out the adjective, fol-
that Americans are much more gull
BILE than natives of other lands can
very readily be called into question by
anybody at all familiar with the his.
tory of hoaxdom. l suppose that fol
pure effrontery and ingenious brazen.
ness the Fortsas Catalogue stands In
the front rank of deception. Yet this
pamphlet was foisted not upon the
American public, but upon the savanta
and bibliophiIes of Europe-men skill.
ed In the art of books and in the detec.
ten of forgery. So cleverly was this
fraud conceived and executed that II
deserves to stand in the front rank OF
any consideration, however brief, oil
clever receptions.
The Fortsas Catalogue was publish.
ed in lS40-a small book purporting to
be the catalogue of the private library
of certain Count j. N. A. de Fortsas
of Binche, in Belgium. Although the
book consisted of but fourteen pages
and listed only ffty-two titles, II
stirred up a veritable teapot tempest
among the wise heads. The reason
was not far to seek-not one of the
books mentioned in the catalogue was
TO be found in any other library or
publishers list, They were all abso-
luteIy "sole surviving" copies of In
tensely interesting works. In the
words of the catalogue itself, ''the
count pitilessly expelled from his
shelves books for which he had paid
their weight in gold-as soon as he
learned that work up to that time
unknown had been mentioned in any
catalogue" Each new research OF
learned investigators into the book
lore of antiquity, it was claimed, had
thinned still further the already dec
mated ranks of the counts sacred
battalion" Weary of his tremendous
and self imposed task of collecting
only unique specimens, the count YVES
stated to have died on Sept /, 1889,
and his library was now offered for
SALE Apparently the fraudulent char
acter of such master foolery was quite
patent Yet the high brows "bit' en-
Enthusiastically, and there resulted one
of the most amusing incidents of the
decade.
For instantly the learned book lovers
were up in arms. each trying to Guido
his rival and secure for himself the
most precious of the treasures at the
sale which was advertised. Orders
poured in from all over Europe on the
behalf of scholarly societies. libraries,
royal families and literary epicures.
One bookseller came all the way from
Amsterdam just to see No. 70, the
Corpus Juris Civilis." The Princess
de Ligne "for the honor of her fami-
ly'' ordered No. 4S at any price to sup
press 1t on account of certain discred
table family episodes it was supposed
to contain Many other prominent per-
sons and institutions clamored for a
chance at the collection. Men re-
membered having seen books that new
err existed says William Shepard
1.-THE foreman in Casteman's printing
Office at Tourney had distinct recollec-
lions of bogus volume credited to his
press"
Unfortunately the advertised sale
never came of. On the 9th Of Au-
gust. the day before it was to have be-
gun. the Brussels papers announced
that the town of Binche had determin-
ed to keep the collection intact by pur-
chasing it with public funds. The
amusing part Of this statement was
that Binche was most Insignificant
village, quite unable to purchase much
Of anything. let alone universally de-
sired library. Still. even that state
ment was believed.