by Wikipedia
Accessed: 12/25/21
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_forgery
-- Noble lie [Pious Fiction] [Pious Fraud] [Pious Invention], by Wikipedia
-- Outline of forgery, by Wikipedia
-- Literary forgery, by Wikipedia
-- False document, by Wikipedia
-- Pseudepigrapha, by Wikipedia
-- Donation of Constantine, by Wikipedia
-- A treasured manuscript in a college library that was believed to have been written by Galileo is a forgery, university says, by Aya Elamroussi
-- The Artist Who Got Rich Forging Picasso & Matisse: Real Fake: Elmyr de Hory, by Perspective
-- Forgery, by Wikipedia
What could happen when a wealthy foreigner was trying to locate such information in old Indian texts is exemplified by the case of Francis WILFORD (I761?-1822), a respected member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal who lived in India four decades after the sack of Calcutta rang in the British Empire. Unlike Holwell, Wilford had studied Sanskrit. He was intent on proving on the basis of Indian texts that India and Egypt had from ancient times been in close contact and that their religions came from a common source. Since that source was, of course, ultimately Noah's ark, Wilford had Indian assistants look for a precise set of topics: the deluge, the name of Noah and his sons, and so forth. Like Holwell some decades before him, Wilford had to tell a learned Indian what he was looking for "as a clue to guide him," and for several years he faithfully translated what this Indian guru gave him. But suddenly he detected that he had fallen victim to fraud:In order to avoid the trouble of consulting books, he conceived the idea of framing legends from what he recollected from the Puranas, and from what he had picked up in conversation with me. As he was exceedingly well read in the Puranas, and other similar books ... it was an easy task for him; and he studied to introduce as much truth as he could, to obviate the danger of immediate detection .... His forgeries were of three kinds; in the first there was only a word or two altered; in the second were such legends as had undergone a more material alteration; and in the third all those which he had written from memory. (Wilford 1805:251)
The output of this Indian expert was quite astonishing, and the most famous example shows what good remuneration, a sense of what the customer is looking for, and skill in composition can achieve. The learned Indian composed a story "which in nine Sanskrit verses ... reprises the story of Noah, his three sons, and the curse of Ham" and convinced no less a man than William Jones that Noah and his three sons figured in genuine Indian Puranas (Trautmann 1997:90-91). Wilford described how his Indian teacher proceeded in this case:It is a legend of the greatest importance, and said to be extracted from the Padma. It contains the history of NOAH and his three sons, and is written in a masterly style. But unfortunately there is not a word of it to be found in that Purana. It is, however, mentioned, though in less explicit terms, in many Puranas, and the pandit took particular care in pointing out to the several passages which confirmed, more or less, this interesting legend. Of these I took little notice, as his extract appeared more explicit and satisfactory. (Wilford 1805:254)
Since Wilford had told his pandit exactly what he was looking for, the forger produced an ingenious narrative that presented elements of the story of Noah and his sons in an Indian dress and included some surprising details such as "the legend about the intoxication of NOAH" which, as Wilford now realized, "is from what my pandit picked up in conversation with me" (p. 254). In all, this man "composed no less than 12,000 brand new Puranic slokas -- about half the length of the Ramayana! -- and inserted them into manuscripts of the Skanda and Brahmanda Purana" (Trautmann 1997:92). This was a fraud committed on a man who was far more learned than Holwell; the texts were in Sanskrit, not Hindi; and the source texts could be verified.
-- The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App
In textual studies, a palimpsest (/ˈpælɪmpsɛst/) is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document.[1] Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or goat kid skin and was expensive and not readily available, so in the interest of economy a page was often re-used by scraping off the previous writing. In colloquial usage, the term palimpsest is also used in architecture, archaeology and geomorphology to denote an object made or worked upon for one purpose and later reused for another, for example a monumental brass the reverse blank side of which has been re-engraved.
The word "palimpsest" derives from the Latin palimpsestus, which derives from the Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος[2] (palímpsēstos, from παλίν + ψαω = "again" + "scrape"), a compound word that describes the process: "The original writing was scraped and washed off, the surface resmoothed, and the new literary material written on the salvaged material."[3] The Ancient Greeks used wax-coated tablets, like scratch-pads, to write on with a stylus, and to erase the writing by smoothing the wax surface and writing again. This practice was adopted by Ancient Romans, who wrote (literally scratched on letters) on wax-coated tablets, which were reusable; Cicero's use of the term "palimpsest" confirms such a practice.
-- Palimpsest, by Wikipedia
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to forgery:
Forgery – process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive.
Types of forgery
• Archaeological forgery
• Art forgery
• Black propaganda — false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side
• Counterfeiting
o Counterfeit money — types of counterfeit coin include the cliché forgery, the fourrée and the slug
o Counterfeit consumer goods
o Counterfeit medication
o Counterfeit watches
o Unapproved aircraft parts
o Watered stock
• False documents
• Forgery as covert operation
• Identity document forgery
o Fake passport
• Literary forgery
o Fake memoirs
o Pseudopigraphy — the false attribution of a work, not always as an act of forgery
• Musical forgery — music allegedly written by composers of past eras, but actually composed later by someone else
• Philatelic forgery — fake stamps produced to defraud stamp collecters
• Signature forgery
Legality of forgery
Kenya
• Forgery of Foreign Bills Act 1803
• Forgery Act 1830
• Forgery, Abolition of Punishment of Death Act 1832
• Forgery Act 1837
• Forgery Act 1861
• Forgery Act 1870
• Forgery Act 1913
• Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981
International
• Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
• Council of Europe Convention on the Counterfeiting of Medical Products
Related offences
• Phishing — impersonating a reputable organization via electronic media, which often involves creating a replica of a trustworthy website
• Uttering — knowingly passing on a forgery with the intent to defraud
Detection and prevention of forgery
Anti-counterfeiting agencies and organisations
• Authentics Foundation - an international non-governmental organization that raises public awareness of counterfeits
• Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group — an international group of central banks that investigates emerging threats to the security of banknotes
• Counterfeit Coin Bulletin — a now-defunct publication of the American Numismatic Association
• Alliance Against Counterfeit Spirits — the trade association for the worldwide spirit industry's protection against counterfeit produce
• Philatelic Foundation — a major source of authentication of rare and valuable postage stamps
• United States Secret Service — the agency responsible for the prevention and investigation of counterfeit U.S. currency
• Verified-Accredited Wholesale Distributors — a program that offers accreditation to wholesale pharmaceutical distribution facilities
Tools and techniques
• Authentication - the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a single piece of data claimed true by an entity.
• Counterfeit banknote detection pen — uses an iodine-based ink that reacts with the starch found in counterfeit banknotes
• EURion constellation — a pattern of symbols incorporated into banknote designs, which can be detected by imaging software
• Geometric lathe — a 19th-century lathe used for making ornamental patterns on the plates used in printing banknotes and stamps
• Microprinting - very small text hidden on banknotes or cheques, that is difficult to accurately reproduce
• Optical variable device — an iridescent image that cannot be photocopied or scanned
• Optically variable ink — ink that appears to change color depending on the angle it is viewed from
• Philatelic expertisation — the process whereby an expert is asked to give an opinion whether a philatelic item is genuine
• Questioned document examination — a forensic science discipline that attempts to answer questions about disputed documents
• Security printing — the field of the printing industry that deals with the printing of items such as banknotes and identity documents
• Security thread — a thin ribbon threaded through a banknote, that appears as a solid line when held up to the light
• Taggant — a radio frequency microchip that can be tracked and identified
• Watermark — a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness when viewed
Examples of forgery
Archaeological forgery
• Acámbaro figures — over 32,000 ceramic figurines which appear to provide evidence for the co-existence of dinosaurs and humans
• Archaeoraptor — the supposed "missing link" between birds and tetrapod dinosaurs; constructed by rearranging pieces of genuine fossils
• AVM Runestone — a student prank that was believed to be an ancient Norse runestone
• Beringer's Lying Stones — fake fossils that were planted as an 18th-century prank
• Brandenburg stone — a stone slab bearing markings which appear to be letters of an unknown alphabet
• Calaveras Skull — a human skull that was thought to prove the existence of Pliocene-age man in North America
• Cardiff Giant — a ten-foot-tall "petrified man" carved out of gypsum
• Chiemsee Cauldron — a golden cauldron found at the bottom of a lake
• Crystal skull — a series of artifacts crafted from quartz, often attributed to Aztec or Mayan civilizations
• Drake's Plate of Brass — supposedly a brass plaque planted by Francis Drake upon arrival in America, but a practical joke that spun out of control
• Grave Creek Stone — a small sandstone disk inscribed with twenty-five pseudo-alphabetical characters
• Holly Oak gorget — a mammoth engraved upon a shell pendant
• Ica stones — a collection of andesite stones that depict dinosaurs co-existing with humans
• Japanese Paleolithic hoax — many paleolithic finds manufactured by amateur archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura to bolster his reputation
• Kafkania pebble — a small rounded pebble bearing what could be an early example of Greek syllabic writing
• Kinderhook plates — six bell-shaped pieces of brass with strange engravings; Latter-Day Saints founder Joseph Smith allegedly attempted to translate them
• Lead Books of Sacromonte — a series of texts inscribed on circular lead leaves, denounced as heretical forgeries by the Vatican in 1682; modern scholars concur with this analysis
• Lenape Stone — an engraving that appears to show Native Americans hunting a woolly mammoth
• Michigan relics — artifacts that appear to prove that East Europeans lived in Michigan in ancient times; a money-making scam
• The inscription at Pedra da Gávea — allegedly carved by Phoenicians, who were not thought to have had the naval capacity to travel across the ocean to Brazil
• Persian Princess — the mummified body of a "Persian princess"; the corpse of a woman who was murdered around 1996
• Piltdown Man — the jaw of an orangutan attached to the skull of a human, hailed as the missing link between humans and apes
• Sherborne Bone — a bone with a horse's head engraved on it, now known to be a schoolboy prank
• Solid Muldoon — a "petrified human" made out of the mortar, rock dust, clay, plaster, ground bones, blood, and meat
• Spirit Pond runestones — small stones bearing runic inscriptions, ostensibly of pre-Columbian origin
• Tiara of Saitaferne — a tiara exhibited at the Louvre Museum as belonging to a Scythian king, until this statement was disputed by the goldsmith who created it
• Vinland map — an allegedly 15th-century map of the world, which would have been be the earliest map to depict America (or "Vinland")
Art forgery
• Amarna Princess — a statue created by Shaun Greenhalgh in the ancient Egyptian style, and sold to Bolton Museum for £439,767
• Black Admiral — a Revolutionary War-era painting of a black man in a naval uniform
• Bust of Flora — a bust of the Roman goddess Flora, previously believed to be a work by Leonardo da Vinci, now attributed to Richard Cockle Lucas.
• Camille Corot forgeries — thousands of imitation Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings
• Eadred Reliquary — a silver vessel created by Shaun Greenhalgh, containing a piece of wood which he claimed was a fragment of the True Cross
• Etruscan terracotta warriors — three terracotta warriors created by Italian forgers and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• The Faun — a sculpture created by Shaun Greenhalgh and sold as a work by Paul Gauguin
• Flower portrait — a portrait of William Shakespeare, probably painted in the 19th century
• Michelangelo's Cupid — a sleeping Cupid sculpture that was created, artificially aged and sold by Renaissance artist Michelangelo
• Risley Park Lanx — the replica of a genuine Roman artifact, "discovered" by the Greenhalgh family and put on display at the British Museum
• Rospigliosi Cup — a gold and enamel cup thought to have been crafted by Italian goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, but now considered a 19th-century forgery
• The works of the Spanish Forger — an unidentified 19th-century artist who created over 200 medieval miniatures, which are still highly valued by collectors
Black propaganda
• The Franklin Prophecy — an anti-Semitic speech falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, arguing against the admittance of Jewish immigrants to the newly formed United States
• Morey letter — a letter published during the 1880 US presidential elections, suggesting that James A. Garfield was in favor of Chinese immigration
• Our Race Will Rule Undisputed Over The World — a speech given by the non-existent Rabbi Emanuel Rabinovich, outlining Jewish plans for world domination
• A Protocol of 1919 — a document supposedly found among the belongings of a Jew killed in battle, outlining Jewish plans for world domination
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion — a lengthy text, originating in Russia and widely publicized by the Nazi party, outlining Jewish plans for world domination
• A Radical Program for the Twentieth Century — a text supposedly written by a British Jewish Communist, cited as proof that the civil rights movement in America was a foreign Communist plot
• Tanaka Memorial — an alleged Japanese strategic planning document, advising Emperor Hirohito on how to conquer the world
Counterfeiting
• 2012 Pakistan fake medicine crisis — a batch of counterfeit medicine that killed over 100 heart patients at a hospital in Punjab
• Counterfeit United States currency — some notable examples of counterfeit operations
• Fake Indian Currency Note — fake currency in circulation in the Indian economy
• Operation Bernhard — a Nazi plot to destabilize the British economy by dropping counterfeit notes out of aircraft
• Superdollar — a very high-quality counterfeit the United States hundred dollar bill
• Partnair Flight 394 — a chartered flight that crashed in 1989, killing all 55 people on board; it was caused by counterfeit aircraft parts
• Unauthorized Apple Stores in China — twenty-two unauthorized Apple Stores discovered in Kunming
Forged documents
• Canuck letter — a letter implying that a Democratic presidential candidate was prejudiced against French-Canadians
• Casket letters — letters and sonnets supposedly written by Mary, Queen of Scots, implicating her in the murder of her husband
• Donation of Constantine — a decree issued by emperor Constantine I, granting authority over Rome and part of the Roman Empire to Pope Sylvester I and his successors
• Dossiers Secrets — documents, planted in the National Library of France, that were used as the basis for a series of BBC documentaries
• Habbush letter — a letter linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks
• Killian documents — memos critical of President George W. Bush's service in the National Guard
• Larmenius Charter — a Latin manuscript listing twenty-two successive Grand Masters of the Knights Templar
• Lindsay pamphlet scandal — pamphlets distributed by the Australian Liberal Party, claiming an alliance between the Labor Party and an Islamic organization
• Mustafa-letter — a letter used by Norway's Liberal Party to prove that the country was in danger of being overrun with Muslims
• Niger uranium forgeries — documents implying that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium powder, allegedly to build weapons of mass destruction
• Oath of a Freeman — a copy of the loyalty oath drawn up by 17th-century Pilgrims
• Privilegium Maius — a medieval manuscript boosting the legitimacy and influence of the House of Habsburg
• Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals — letters and canons purportedly authored by early popes, including a collection authored by "Benedict Levita".
• William Lynch speech — a speech by an 18th-century slave owner, who claims to have discovered the secret of controlling slaves by pitting them against each other
• Zeno map — a map of the North Atlantic containing many non-existent islands
• Zinoviev letter — a directive from Moscow to Britain's Communist Party, calling for intensified communist agitation; the letter contributed to the downfall of Prime Minister MacDonald
Literary forgery
• The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ — a religious text supposedly transcribed from the Akashic records
• The Archko Volume — a series of supposedly contemporary reports relating to the life and death of Jesus
• Autobiography of Howard Hughes — an "autobiography" of reclusive eccentric Howard Hughes, written without his knowledge or consent
• Book of Jasher — an alternative account of the Old Testament narrative
• Book of Veles — a set of Slavic texts written on wooden planks
• Centrum Naturae Concentratum — a 17th-century alchemical text
• Christine — a compilation of letters purportedly written by an English girl studying in Germany in 1914, before the outbreak of war
• Chronicle of Huru — supposedly an official chronicle of the medieval Moldavian court
• Chronicon of Pseudo-Dexter — a 15th-century account of the Church's activities in Spain, attributed to Flavius Dexter
• De Situ Britanniae — an 18th-century forgery represented as a Roman account of ancient Britain
• Epistle to the Alexandrians — an unknown text derided as a forgery in a 7th-century manuscript
• Epistle to the Laodiceans — a lost letter of Saint Paul, often "rediscovered" by forgers
• Essene Gospel of Peace — a text which claims, among other things, that Jesus was a vegetarian
• Gospel of Josephus — a forgery created to raise publicity for a novel
• Historias de la Conquista del Mayab — a Mexican manuscript supposedly written by an 18th-century monk
• History of the Captivity in Babylon — an ostensibly Old Testament text elaborating on the Book of Jeremiah
• Hitler Diaries — a set of volumes purported to be the diaries of Adolf Hitler, serialized in the German magazine Stern and the British Sunday Times
• Ireland Shakespeare forgeries — forged correspondence between Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and a "lost play" entitled Vortigern and Rowena
• Jack the Ripper Diary — the forged diary of Victorian merchant James Maybrick, apparently revealing him to be Jack the Ripper
• Letter of Benan — the letter of an Egyptian physician describing his encounters with Jesus
• Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend — a letter in support of Zionism, attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.
• The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles — the "missing" 29th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles
• Memoirs Of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy To The Middle East — a document purporting to be the account of an 18th-century secret agent, describing his role in founding the Islamic reform movement of Wahhabism
• Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora — fraudulent Slavic manuscripts created in the early 19th century
• Minuscule 2427 — a minuscule manuscript of the Gospel of Mark
• Mussolini diaries — several forged diaries supposedly written by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
• My Sister and I — an autobiographical work attributed to the philosopher Nietzsche, containing a probably fictional account of his incestuous relationship with his sister
• Oahspe: A New Bible — a New Age bible written by an American dentist
• Ossianic poems — a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, attributed to the legendary Ossian
• Roxburghe Ballads — over a thousand 17th-century ballads published by John Payne Collier, some of which he had written himself
• Salamander Letter — a document that offers an alternative account of Joseph Smith's finding of the Book of Mormon.
• Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses — a magical text supposedly written by Moses, providing instructions on how to perform the miracles portrayed in the Bible
• The Songs of Bilitis — a collection of erotic poetry allegedly found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus
• Supplements to the Satyricon — several forged versions of the Latin novel Satyricon
• Talmud Jmmanuel — a supposedly ancient Aramaic text suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for the Bible
• The Zohar — a primary text of medieval Kabbalah, written by a 16th-century Spanish Rabbi but attributed to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, an ancient sage of the Second Temple period
Musical forgery
• Adélaïde Concerto — a violin concerto attributed to Mozart
Philatelic forgery
• Russian philatelic forgeries — some examples of notable Russian stamp forgeries
• Stock Exchange Forgery 1872-73 — a fraud perpetrated by telegraph clerks at the London Stock Exchange
• Turner Collection of Forgeries — a collection of forged postage stamps on display at the British Library
Forgery controversies
The authenticity of certain documents and artifacts has not yet been determined and is still the subject of debate.
• Augustan History — a collection of biographies of Roman emperors
• Bat Creek inscription — an inscription on a stone allegedly found in a Native American burial mound
• Isleworth Mona Lisa — a close imitation of da Vinci's Mona Lisa, sometimes attributed in part to da Vinci
• James Ossuary — a chalk box used to contain the bones of the dead, bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus"
• Jehoash Inscription — an inscription confirming the Biblical account of the repairs made to the temple in Jerusalem by Jehoash
• Jordan Lead Codices — a series of ring-bound books of lead and copper, that are said to pre-date the writings of St. Paul
• Kensington Runestone — a slab of greywacke covered in Scandinavian runes, found in North America and supposedly carved in the 14th century
• Letter of Lentulus — an epistle allegedly written by a Roman Consul, giving a physical description of Jesus
• Majestic 12 documents — supposedly leaked papers relating to the formation, in 1947, of a secret committee of US officials to investigate the Roswell incident
• Mar Saba letter — an epistle, attributed to Clement of Alexandria, discussing the Secret Gospel of Mark
• Newark Holy Stones — a set of artifacts allegedly discovered among a group of ancient Indian burial grounds
• Old High German lullaby — a supposedly 10th-century poem containing numerous references to Germanic mythology
• Prophecy of the Popes — a series of 112 short cryptic phrases which purport to predict future Roman Catholic Popes
• Shroud of Turin — a linen cloth that is said to be the burial shroud of Jesus, and bears the image of a man who appears to have suffered injuries consistent with crucifixion
• Sinaia lead plates — a set of lead plates written in an unknown language
• Sisson documents — sixty-eight Russian documents which claim that Trotsky and Lenin were German agents attempting to bring about Russia's withdrawal from World War I
• Stalin's alleged speech of 19 August 1939 — a speech supposedly given by Joseph Stalin in which he stated that the approaching war would benefit the Soviet Union
• Titulus Crucis — a piece of wood, ostensibly a fragment of the True Cross upon which Jesus was crucified
• US Army Field Manual 30-31B — a text purporting to be a classified appendix of a US Army Field Manual which describes top-secret counter-insurgency tactics
Some documents and artifacts were previously thought to be forgeries, but have subsequently been determined to be genuine.
• Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil — an oil painting by Monet
• Glozel artifacts — over three thousand artifacts dating back to the Neolithic era, discovered in a small French hamlet
• Lady of Elche — a stone bust believed to have been carved by the Iberians
• Praeneste fibula — a golden brooch bearing an inscription in Old Latin
Notable forgers
Archaeological forgers
• Charles Dawson (1864–1916) — "discoverer" of the Piltdown Man
• Shinichi Fujimura (born 1950)
• Oded Golan (born 1951) — accused of forging the James Ossuary, among other things; he was acquitted of these charges in March 2012
• Islam Akhun
• Brigido Lara
• Moses Shapira (1830–1884)
Art forgers
• Giovanni Bastianini (1830–1868)
• William Blundell (born 1947)
• Chang Dai-chien (1899–1983)
• Yves Chaudron
• Alceo Dossena (1878–1937)
• John Drewe (born 1948)
• Kenneth Fetterman
• Alfredo Fioravanti (1886–1963)
• Shaun Greenhalgh (born 1961) — described by the Metropolitan Police as "the most diverse art forger known in history"
• Guy Hain
• Eric Hebborn (1934–1996)
• Elmyr de Hory (1905–1976) — subject of the Orson Welles documentary F for Fake
• Geert Jan Jansen (born 1943)
• Tom Keating (1917–1984)
• Konrad Kujau (1938–2000) — the author of the Hitler Diaries
• Mark A. Landis (born 1955)
• Lothar Malskat (1913–1988)
• Han van Meegeren (1889–1947) — estimated to have earned the equivalent of over thirty million dollars for his forgeries
• Jacques van Meegeren (1912–1977)
• John Myatt (born 1945)
• Sámuel Literáti Nemes (1796–1842)
• Edmé Samson (1810–1891)
• Ely Sakhai (born 1952)
• Jean-Pierre Schecroun
• Émile Schuffenecker (1851–1934)
• Karl Sim (born 1923)
• David Stein (1935–1999)
• Tony Tetro (born 1950)
• Robert Thwaites
• Franz Tieze (1842–1932)
• William J. Toye (born 1931)
• Eduardo de Valfierno — allegedly masterminded the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa
• Kenneth Walton (born 1967) — author of the memoir Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay
• E. M. Washington (born 1962)
• Theo van Wijngaarden (1874–1952)
Counterfeiters
• Philip Alston (c. 1740 - after 1799)
• Anatasios Arnaouti (born 1967)
• Trevor Ashmore
• Robert Baudin (1918–1983)
• Charles Black (1928 - 2012)
• William Booth (c. 1776 – 1812)
• Mary Butterworth (1686–1775)
• William Chaloner (c. 1665 – 1699)
• Louis Colavecchio
• The Cragg Vale Coiners
• Thomas Dangerfield (c. 1650 – 1685)
• Mike DeBardeleben (1940–2011)
• John Duff (c. 1759 – 1799)
• Edward Emery (died c. 1850)
• David Farnsworth
• Bernhard Krüger (1904–1989) — director of the Nazi counterfeiting plot codenamed Operation Bernhard
• Ignazio Lupo (1877–1947)
• Catherine Murphy (died 1789) — the last woman to be executed by burning.
• Emanuel Ninger (1845–1927)
• Bernard von NotHaus — inventor of the Liberty Dollar
• Salomon Smolianoff (1899–1976) — WWII concentration camp detainee and key figure in Operation Bernhard
• Samuel C. Upham (1819–1885)
• Arthur Williams
Document forgers
• Frank Abagnale (born 1948) — subject of the film Catch Me If You Can
• Charles Bertram (1723–1765) — author of De Situ Britanniae
• Joseph Cosey (1887 – c. 1950)
• Przybysław Dyjamentowski (1694–1774)
• Michael John Hamdani
• Adolfo Kaminsky (born 1925)
• Jean LaBanta (born c. 1879)
• Maharaja Nandakumar (died 1775)
• Richard Pigott (1835–1889)
• Piligrim (died 991)
• James Reavis (1843–1914)
• Alves dos Reis (1898–1955)
• Scott Reuben (born 1958)
• William Roupell (1831–1909)
• William Wynne Ryland (c. 1738 – 1783)
• Michael Sabo
• Alexander Howland Smith (fl. 1886)
• Robert Spring (1813–1876)
• Adolf Ludvig Stierneld (1755–1835)
• Brita Tott (fl. 1498)
• Lucio Urtubia (born 1931)
• Denis Vrain-Lucas (1818–1880)
• Henry Woodhouse (1884–1970)
Literary forgers
• Annio da Viterbo (c. 1432 – 1502)
• Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet (1873–1944)
• Adémar de Chabannes (c. 988 – 1034)
• Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770)
• Mark Hofmann (born 1954) — forger of several documents relating to the Latter Day Saint movement, including the Salamander letter
• William Henry Ireland (1775–1835) — author of the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries and the pseudepigraphical play Vortigern and Rowena
• Clifford Irving (1930 - 2017)
• William Lauder (c. 1680 – 1771)
• James Macpherson (1736–1796) — the supposed "translator" of the Ossianic poems
• Iolo Morganwg (1747–1826)
• François Nodot (c. 1650 – 1710)
• Francesco Maria Pratilli (1689–1763)
• Constantine Simonides (1820–1867)
• Clotilde de Surville (fl. 1421)
• Charles Weisberg (died 1945)
Musical forgers
• Henri Casadesus (1879–1947)
• Marius Casadesus (1892–1981) — creator of the Adélaïde Concerto
• François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871)
• Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962)
• Winfried Michel (born 1948)
• David Popper (1843–1913)
• Roman Turovsky-Savchuk (born 1961)
• Vladimir Vavilov (1925–1973)
• Voller Brothers (1885-1927)
Signature forgers
• Henry Fauntleroy (1784–1824)
• James Townsend Saward (1799 – after 1857)
Stamp forgers
For a more comprehensive list, see List of stamp forgers.
• A. Alisaffi
• Bernhardt Assmus (c. 1856 – after 1892)
• Rainer Blüm
• Delandre (1883–1923)
• Georges Fouré (1848–1902)
• François Fournier (1846–1917)
• Sigmund Friedl (1851–1914)
• Julius Goldner (c. 1841 – 1898)
• N. Imperato
• Madame Joseph (c. 1900 – after 1945)
• Louis-Henri Mercier (fl. 1890)
• Erasmo Oneglia (1853–1934)
• Adolph Otto (fl. 1870)
• Angelo Panelli (c. 1887 – c. 1967)
• Oswald Schroeder (died c. 1920)
• Lucian Smeets
• Jean de Sperati (1884–1957)
• Philip Spiro
• Béla Székula (1881–1966)
• Raoul de Thuin (1890–1975)
• Harold Treherne (c. 1884 - after 1908)
Media
• The Art of the Faker — a book about art forgery by Frank Arnau
• The Counterfeiters — a movie inspired by the Nazi counterfeiting scheme, Operation Bernhard
• F for Fake — an Orson Welles documentary about art forger Elmyr de Hory
• Fake Britain — a BBC television series about counterfeiting and its effects on consumers
• Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay — a memoir by art forger Kenneth Walton
• Fake or Fortune? — a BBC television series which examines the provenance of notable artworks
• Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology — a book by Kenneth L. Feder on the topic of pseudoarcheology
• Pierre Grassou — a novel by Honoré de Balzac about a fictional art forger
• Selling Hitler — an ITV drama-documentary about the Hitler Diaries
External links
• Forgery and Fakes: Overview, Caslon Analytics.
• Sources of information on art forgery, Museum Security Network
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Literary forgery
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 12/25/21
Cover of The Songs of Bilitis (1894), a French pseudotranslation of Ancient Greek erotic poetry by Pierre Louÿs
Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir or other presumably nonfictional writing deceptively presented as true when, in fact, it presents untrue or imaginary information or content.
History
Literary forgery may involve the work of a famous author whose writings have an established intrinsic, as well as monetary, value. In an attempt to gain the rewards of such a reputation, the forger often engages in two distinct activities. The forger produces a writing which resembles the style of the known reputable author to whom the fake is to be attributed. The forger may also fake the physical alleged original manuscript. This is less common, as it requires a great deal of technical effort, such as imitating the ink and paper. The forger then claims that, not only is the style of writing the same, but also that the ink and paper are of the kind or type used by the famous author. Other common types of literary forgery may draw upon the potential historical cachet and novelty of a previously undiscovered author.
Literary forgery has a long history. Onomacritus (c. 530 – 480 BCE) is among the most ancient known literary forgers. He invented prophecies, which he ascribed to the bard Musaeus.[1]
In the 3rd century CE, a certain Septimius produced what appeared to be a Latin translation of an eyewitness account to the Trojan War by Dictys of Crete. In the letter of dedication, the translator gave additional credence to the document by claiming the Greek original had come to light during Nero's reign when Dictys' tomb was opened by an earthquake and his diary was discovered. Septimius then claimed the original had been handed to the governor of Crete, Rutilius Rufus, who gave the diary to Nero during his tour of Greece in 66-67 CE. According to historian Miriam Griffin, such bogus and romantic claims to antiquity were not uncommon at the time.[2]
One of the longest lasting literary forgeries is by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th-6th century Syrian mystical writer who claimed to be a disciple of Paul the Apostle. Five hundred years later, Abelard expressed doubts about the authorship, but it was not until after the Renaissance that there was general agreement that the attribution of the work was false. In the intervening 1,000 years, the writings had much theological influence.[3]
Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770), the English poet and letter writer, began his brilliant medieval forgeries when little more than a child. While they brought him praise, and fame after his death, his writing afforded little in the way of financial success and he committed suicide aged 17, penniless, alone and half-starved.
The English Mercurie appeared to be the first English newspaper when it was discovered in 1794. This was, ostensibly, an account of the English battle with the Spanish Armada of 1588, but was, in fact, written in the 18th century by Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, as a literary game with his friends.[4]
Literary forgery was promoted as a creative method by Charles Nodier and, in the 19th century, many writers produced literary forgeries under his influence, notably Prosper Merimee and Pierre Louys.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was an antisemitic forged document first published in Russia. The abridged version was available to the public in 1903. The unabridged version was later edited by a retired officer of the Russian Imperial Guard, G.V. Butmi. This forgery exploits Jews by stating that Jews were inevitably trying to exercise a coup against Christianity in order to essentially rule the world. The document was exposed as plagiarism by English journalist Philip Graves in 1921. Graves exposed the strong similarities in the political satire by Maurice Joly, The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu. The forged document was supported and promoted by Henry Ford in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent.[5]
Related issues
Fake memoirs
Main pages: Fake memoir, List of fake memoirs and journals, and Category: Written fiction presented as fact
Sometimes, the authorship of a piece is uncontested, but the writer is untruthful about themselves to such a degree that it is as if it was a forgery - rather than forging in the name of an expert or authority, the author falsely claims such authority for themselves. This usually takes the form of autobiographical works as fake memoirs. Its modern form is most common with "misery lit" books, in which the author claims to have suffered illness, parental abuse, and/or drug addiction during their upbringing, yet recovered well enough to write of their struggles. The 1971 book Go Ask Alice is officially anonymous, but claims to be taken from the diary of an actual drug abuser; later investigation showed that the work is almost certainly fictitious, however. A recent example is the 2003 book A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, wherein Frey claimed to experience fighting drug addiction in rehab; the claimed events were fictional, yet not presented as such.[6]
Other forms considered literary hoaxes are when an author asserts an identity and history for themselves that is not accurate. Asa Earl Carter wrote under the pseudonym Forrest Carter; Forrest Carter claimed to be a half-Cherokee descendent who grew up in native culture, but the real Asa Earl Carter was a white man from Alabama. Forrest Carter's persona thus possessed a similar false authenticity as a forged work would, in both their memoir and their fiction.[7] Similarly, Nasdijj and Margaret Seltzer also falsely claimed Native American descent to help market their works.[8][9] Danny Santiago claimed to be a young Latino growing up in East Los Angeles, yet the author (whose real name was Daniel Lewis James) was a Midwesterner in his 70s.[10]
Transparent literary fiction
A rare case that can occur is when it is not entirely clear if a work was a fictional piece or a forgery. This generally occurs when a work is written intended as a piece of fiction, but through the mouthpiece of a famous historical character; the audience at the time understands that the work is actually written by others imagining what the historical persona might have written or thought. With later generations, this distinction is lost, and the work is treated as authoritatively by the real person. Later yet, the fact that the work was not really by the seeming author resurfaces. In the case of true transparent literary fictions, no deception is involved, and the issue is merely one of misinterpretation. However, this is fairly rare.
Examples of this may include several works of wisdom literature such as the book of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon in the Hebrew Bible. Both works do not directly name an author, but are written from the perspective of King Solomon, and feature poetry and philosophical thoughts from his perspective that can switch between first and third-person perspectives. The books may not have intended to be taken as actually from the hand of Solomon, but this became tangled, and many later generations did assume they were directly from Solomon's hand. The fact that it is not clear if any deception was involved makes many scholars reluctant to call the work forgeries, however, even those that take the modern scholarly view that they were unlikely to have been written by Solomon due to the work only being quoted by others many centuries after Solomon's death.
For more disputed examples, some New Testament scholars believe that pseudepigrapha in the New Testament epistles can be explained as such transparent fictions. Richard Bauckham, for example, writes that for the Second Epistle of Peter, "Petrine authorship was intended to be an entirely transparent fiction."[11] This view is contested. Bart Ehrman writes that if a religiously prescriptive document was widely known to be not actually from the authority it claimed, it would not be taken seriously. Therefore, the claim of authorship by Peter only makes sense if the intent was indeed to falsely claim the authority of a respected figure in such epistles.[12]
See also
• Helen Darville
• Hitler Diaries
• False document
• Clifford Irving
• Anthony Godby Johnson
• Journalistic scandal
• JT LeRoy
• Outline of forgery
• Dave Pelzer
• Pseudepigrapha
• B. Wongar
References
1. B. Ehrman, Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, HarperOne (2011)ISBN 0062012614, pp. 39-40
2. Nero: The end of a Dynasty, Miram T. Griffin, 1984. Chapter 9. ISBN 0415214645
3. Sarah Coakley (Editor), Charles M. Stang (Editor), Re-thinking Dionysius the Areopagite, Wiley-Blackwell (2009), ISBN 978-1405180894
4. Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Volume 9, January 18, 1840, pp. 17-19
5. Graves, Philip (1921). The Truth about the Protocols: A Literary Forgery. The Times of London.
6. "A Million Little Lies". The Smoking Gun. July 23, 2010.
7. Randall, Dave (September 1, 2002). "The tall tale of Little Tree and the Cherokee who was really a Klansman". The Independent.
8. William McGowan, Gray Lady Down: What the Decline and Fall of the New York Times Means, pp. 160-161, Encounter books, 2010, ISBN 978-1594034862
9. Menand, Louis (2018). "Literary Hoaxes and the Ethics of Authorship". The New Yorker. Condé Nast.
10. Folkart, Burt A. "OBITUARIES : Daniel James : Writer Who Masqueraded as a Latino."Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 21 May 1988. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/1988-05-21/news/mn-2879_1_daniel-james>
11. Jude-2 Peter, Volume 50, Word Biblical Commentary.
12. Ehrman, Bart (2012). Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics. Oxford University Press. p. 141–145. ISBN 9780199928033.
Bibliography
• Bart D. Ehrman Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics, Oxford University Press, USA (2012) 978-0199928033
• James Anson Farrer Literary Forgeries. With an Introduction by Andrew Lang, HardPress Publishing (2012) ISBN 978-1290475143
• Anthony Grafton Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990) ISBN 0-691-05544-0
• Ian Haywood The making of history: a study of the literary forgeries of James Macpherson and Thomas Chatterton in relation to eighteenth-century ideas of history and fiction, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1986, ISBN 978-0838632611
• Lee Israel Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (2008)ISBN 978-1416588672
• Melissa Katsoulis Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes (London: Constable, 2009) ISBN 978-1-84901-080-1
• Richard Landon Literary forgeries & mystifications, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library U. of Toronto, 2003, ISBN 978-0772760456
• Robin Myers Fakes and Frauds: Varieties of Deception In Print & Manuscript (New Castle: Oak Knoll Press 1996) ISBN 0-906795-77-X
• K. K. Ruthven Faking Literature Cambridge University Press (2001) ISBN 978-0521669658
• John Whitehead This Solemn Mockery: The Art of Literary Forgery (London: Arlington Books 1973) ISBN 0-85140-212-7
• Joseph Rosenblum Practice to Deceive: The Amazing Stories of Literary Forgery’s Most Notorious Practitioners (New Castle: Oak Knoll Press, 2000) ISBN 1-58456-010-X
External links
• Books about literary forgery at About.com