The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-02-05
A CELEBRATED HOAX.
Story Of the FOrtsas Catalogue
and Its Author.
CLEVER AND BRAzEN FRAUD.


Fooled the Savants and Bibliophilel
oEEurope and Was the Literary Sen.
sation Of its Day.
When F. II. Barnum cynically re-
marked that the American people
loved to be fooled he might just az
well have left out the adjective, for
that Americans are much more guilt
bic than natives Of other lands cnn
very readily be called into question by
anybody at all familiar with the his.
tory Of hoaxdom. suppose that for
pure effrontery and ingenious brazen-
ness the Fortsas Catalogue stands 10
the front rank OF deception. Yet this
pamphlet was foisted not upon the
American public, but upon the savants
and blbliophiles Of Europe-men skill
ed Ia the art OF books and In the detec.
ton Of forgery. So cleyerly was this
fraud conceived and executed that II
deserves TO stand in the front rank OF
any consideration. however brief, OF
clever receptions
The Fortsas Catalogue was publish
ed In 1904 small book purporting to
be the catalogue Of the private library
of certain Count ]. N. A. de Fortsas
OF Binche. in Belgium. Although the
book consisted OF but fourteen pages
and listed only fifty-two titles, 1t
stirred up 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 listl They were all ALSO
lutely '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. II 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 was
stated to have died on Sept. |, 1890
and his library was now offered for
sale. Apparently the fraudulent char
acter Of such master fooiery was quito
patent Yet the high brows ''bit" en-
Enthusiastically, and there resulted one
81 the most amusing incidents Of the
decade.
For instantly the learned book lovers
were up ia arms, ench 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 eplcures,
One bookseller came all the way from
Amsterdam just to see 10. 70, the
CORPUS Jnrls Civills.1 The Princess
de Ligne "for the honor Of her fami.
ly' ordered No IS at any price to sup
press 1t on account Of certain discred-
liable family episodes It was supposed /
to contain. Many other prominent per
sons and institutions cIamored for a
chance at the collection Men re-
membered having seen books thaf rev
ar existed says WAliap Shepard !
sThe foreman IN Casteman's printing
ufliee at Tourney had distinct recoilee
tons OF a bogus volume credited to bis
press
Unfortunately the advertised sale
never came Off On the 9th Of Au
gust, the day before II was to have be.
gun, the Brussels papers announced
that the town Of Bmehe had detcrmln,
"a to keep the collection intact by pur-
chasing 1t with public funds, The
part Of this statement was
hat Binehe was most insignificant
1illage, quite unable to purchase much
II anything. let alone a universally de-
sired library Still even that state
nent was believed
The truth eventually transpired that
he Count dc Tortsas, his miraculous
library and the catalogue were al the
reations Of an ingenious fellow named
reno Citations living ii Belgium. His
analogue begot a rather extensive Ut.
nature Of its own, which has since
'een collected and published under the
tile Documents ct partieulnrites His
SIR 10 Comte de Fortsas7 All
opy OF the original catalogue now
ests IN the Congressional library at
= Cincinnati Commercial
'rihunc