The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-01-25
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.

Of Europe and Was the Literary Sen
sation of Its Day.
When L. 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
bic 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 il the detec-
ton Of forgery. So Clevcr.y was this
fraud conceived and excel ted that It
deserves to stand in the front rank Of
any consideration. however brief, OF
clever deceptions.
The FOrtsas Catalogue was publish
ca Ill 1C1p-d SlldIi DpOh I'oI jug ~
he the catalogue of the private library
of a certain Count J. \. y. 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 list! They were all abso-
lutely sole surviving" copies Of in
tensely interesting works. In the
words of the catalogue itself. 1.-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 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 was
stated to have died on Sept. l, 1889,
, and his library was now offered for
sale. Apparently the fraudulent char
acter of such master foOery 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 mp 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 8
chance at the collection. Men re
membered having seen books that new.
er existed says William Shepard
The foreman in Castemans 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 detes'min
ed to keep the collection intact by pur
chasing it with public funds. The
amusing part of this statement was
that Binche wae 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 mira cul,us
library and the catalogue We're all The
creations OF an ingenious fellow named
Rene Chalons, living in Belgium. His
catalogue begot q rather extensive lit
erature of its own. which has since
been collected and published under the
title "Documents ct Particularites His
toriques sur lie Conte de Fortsas." a
/ copy Of the original catalogue now
! rests in the Congressional library al
Washington. - Cincinnati Commercial
| Tribune.