_Literary Frauds of Modern Times._--In a work by Bishop (now Cardinal)
Wiseman, entitled _The Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion_,
3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 270., occurs the following remark:
"The most celebrated literary frauds of modern times, the _History of
Formosa_, or, still more, the _Sicilian Code of Vella_, for a time
perplexed the world, but were in the end discovered."
Will you, or any of your readers, kindly refer me to any published account
of the frauds alluded to in this passage? I have a faint remembrance of
having read some remarks respecting the _Code of Vella_, but am unable to
recall the circumstances.
I was under the impression that Chatterton's forgery of the Rowley poems,
Macpherson's of the Ossianic rhapsodies, and Count de Surville's of the
poems of Madame de Surville, were "the most celebrated literary frauds of
modern times." In what respect are those alluded to by Dr. Wiseman entitled
to the unenviable distinction which he claims for them?