The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1908-01-21
A CELEBRATED HOAX,
Story of the Fortsas Catalogue
and Its Author.
CLEVER AND BRAzEN FRAUD.

This Ingenious Publication Completely
Fooled the Savants and BibIiophiles
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 as
well have left out the adjective. for
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. suppose that for
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 savants
and bibliophiles of Europe-men skill
ed In the art Of books and in the detec-
tion Of forgery. So cleverly was this
fraud conceived and executed that 1t
deserves to stand in the front rank OF
any consideration. however brief, OF
clever receptions.
The Fortsas Catalogue was publish
ed in 1s4O-a small book purporting to
be the catalogue of the private library
Of q certain Count ]. N. A. de Fortsas
of Binche, In Belgium. Although the
book consisted of but fourteen pages
and listed only ffty-two titles, 1t
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 IistI They were all abso-
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 a work up to that time
unknown had been mentioned In any
catalogue, Each new research or
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 was
stated to have died on Sept 1, 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. 48 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
err existed" says William Shepard.
"The foreman in Casteman's printing
Office at Tourney had distinct recollec-
lions Of a 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 a most Insignificant
village, quite unable to purchase much
of anything. let alone a universally de-
sired library. Still, even that state
ment was believed
The truth eventually transpired 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. Bis
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
Tribune