The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-01-15
A CELEBRATED HOAX,
Story of the FGrtc2s Catalogue
and Its Author.
CLEVER AND BRAZEN FRAUD.

This Ingenious Publication Completely
Fooled the Savarts and 8ibiiophIes
Of Europe and Was the Literary SEN
sation of Its Day.
When p. +. Barnum cynically re
marked that the American peop,1
loved to be fooled he might just as
well have left out the adjective, for
| that Americans are much more guilt
Bile than natives of other lands cam
very readily he called into question BY
| anybody at all familiar with the his
! tory of hoaXdom. l suppose that for
pure effrontery aud ingenious braZeu-
ness the Fortsas Catalogue stands III
pamphlet was foisted not upon TIE
! American public but upon the savants
and bibliophiles of Europe-men skill
| ed in the art of books and in the detcc
| ton of forgery. SO cleverly was thi
| fraud conceived and executed that ,
deserves to stand in the front rank o.
| any consideration, however brief, O.
clever receptions.
The Fortsas Catalogue was publish
ed in 1S40-a small book purportinG T.
be the catalogue of the private li1rar
of certain Count J. n. A. de Fort
Of Binche. i'll Belgium. Although tn.
book consisted Of but fourteen page:
and listed only tifty-two titles. Ii
stirred up veritable teapot tempest
| among the wise heads. The reason
was not far to seek-not one of tit-
books mentioned in the catalogue was
to be found in any other library oi
publishers list. They We're all aL,so
lutely sole surviving" copies of il
tensely interesting works. In tx
words of the catalogue itself. the
count pitilessly expelled from lis
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 boo
lore of antiquity it was claimed. Dad
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. l. 1888
and his library was snoW 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
! We're 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 As at any price to sup
press it on account of certain discred-
liable family episodes it was supposed
to contain. Many other prominent per-
sons and institutions clamored for
chance at the collection. Men re-
membered having seen books that new
er 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 off 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 a most Insignificant
village, quite unable to purchase much
Of anything let alone universally de-
sired library. Still, even that state
ment was believed.
The truth eventually TRANSFERRED that
the Count de Fortsas, his miraculous
library and the catalogue were all the
creations OF an ingenious fellow named
Rene Chalons. living In Belgium His
catalogue begot a rather extensive lit
erature Of its own, which has since
been collected and published under the
title documents ct Particularites His
toriques sur lie Comte de Fortsas.' A
copy of the original catalogue now
rests in the Congressional library at
Washington. = Cincinnati Commercial