Steven Avery
Well-known member
“The Forger Constantine Simonides” is probably a chapter title.
The False Claims of Constantine Simonides Regarding Sinaiticus
- Thread starter Maestroh
- Start date
Steven Avery
Well-known member
Do you think he would claim ownership of Sinaiticus and then sell the manuscript?
Wow, since it says that right on the page....I mean, this is high level research for sure......
TwoNoteableCorruptions
Well-known member
I'm talking about Simonides advertising slogans (his sales pitches).
You know he used sales pitches in the process of peddling his ✌️creations✌️, right?
Last edited:
TwoNoteableCorruptions
Well-known member
Some interesting accounts of Simonides in Greece and Turkey etc.
"In an Albanian village there died recently one of the most original and artistic swindlers of the present century. Alcibiadea Simonidea was a master of drawing, a fine lithographer and an excellent chemiat. He waa an omnivoroua reader of history, which he retained to the smallest details in the iron grip of hia memory. He had eloquence, ingenuity and perseverance. All of this talents he devoted to a single purpose. He made a profession of swindling the most learned of his contemporaries. Simonides made his debut at the age of thirty-five at Athens. He then laid before the King of Greece a mass of apparently priceless manuscripts. They were seemingly of great antiquity, and included works which had long been lost to civilization. Simonidea explained that he and His uncle had discovered the manuscripts in the Cloister Chilandarim on Mount Athos. He told just how and when the manuscripts were found, and fortified every sentence with copious references to literary history and classical authorities. The King bought $10,000 worth of the tieasurea and Simonides disappeared. .« In a year he was back again with another batch of marvellously valuable old manuscripts. Among them was an ancient Homer, written on lotos leaves, and accompanied by a complete commentary of Eustatius. The King wished to buy the whole lot. but could not see his way clear to raising money for more than half ot* it. The rest of the manuscripts he recommended for purchase to the University of Athens. The rector of the university was not without misgivings as to the smooth stories of Simonides,' and at his suggestion a commission of twelve scholars was appointed to test the genuineness ol the documents. After a long investigation eleven members of the commission reported that the manuscripts were authentic. The twelfth, Professor Mavraki, called lor a new investigation, which was eventually made. The result was the discovery that Simonides' Homer was a verbatim copy,- even to the typographical errors, of Wolff's edition. .The commission summoned Simonides to appear before it and explain, but he had got wind of the state of affairs and had skipped away with the proceeds of hia sales to the King. For a few years he was completely lost to view. His perlormance in Athens was almost forgotten. In the middle of the sixties he turned up, unrecognized and unsuspected, in Constantinople, with- an old Greek work. concerning hieroglyphics and an Assyrian manuscript with an interlinear Phoenician translation. For the delectation of Armenian scholars he had also brought a Greek history of Armenia. He found patrona enouzh and had Boon transformed his manuscript into cash to the amount of about $40,000. When the introduction and the first chapter of the Armenian history were published, it was remarked that the names of the Armenian Generals were not Armenian, and Simoxides was again missing when called upon for explanations. The slight historical error as to the Armenian Generals and their names wound up the first period of Simonides' career, and led him to vary somewhat his manner of working in his future schemes. The first evidence of this change was his announcement to western European scholars some time later that he possessed a roll dating from the days when the French and Venetians ruled Constantinople. In this roll, he said, a monk had recorded that there were buried manuscripts of great age and value at various spots on the Bosphorua. The location of these apota was described accurately in the roll. * In a certain cloister, Simonides aaid. might be found the Acts of the first Apostolic Concilium of Antioch. Eventually Simonidea sought the aid ot the Patriarch in unearthing these treasures. The Patriarch, however, answered that " these acts were superfluous. Either they confirmed or contradicted the canons of the Greek Church. In the first case they were useless; in the second they were worse than useless, and the finding of them would be a criminal deed." Simonidea then waited on the Minister of Public Works, Ismail Pasha. The Pasha was in hia harem when Simonides called, and so the forger busied himself with a little exploration of the garden while waiting. He buried a small box under a big fig tree there, and, when the Pasha appeared, remarked that the garden seemed to be the location of buried manuscripts mentioned in this and that classical work. After screwing the Pasha's . interest up to the necessary ardor, he suggested that digging for the manuscripts should begin at once. He directed that the first excavation be made under the fig tree. In a few minutes the Pasha's workmen struck a curious old box, in which lay a bit of discolored parchment bearing a poem ostensibly written by Aristotle. The Pasha was delighted and filled Simonides hands with Turkish money. A few days later Ismail was bronght down from the clouds by the remark of his gardener that the fig tree in question had been transplanted only twenty years before, and that all the ground on and about the epot where the box was found had been dag up thoroughly at that time. The Pasha's chagrin was so great that he made no effort to bring Simonides to justice. The cunning old Greek .derived encouragement from the impunity with which he had executed his last maneuver. He looked aronnd for another Turkish victim, and decided that he had found him in Ibrahim Pasha. Ibrahim had just broken ground for the erection of a building on the site of the ancient Byzantine hippodrome. Simonides told him that a few yards below the surface, at a certain epot, there must be an Arabian manuscript.- The Pasha's workmen dug there, but found nothing. " Let me dig," exclaimed Simonides. He dug, and in five minutes handed the Pasha a curious bronze box. Within it was an Arabian poem on parchment. The Pasha wished immediately to give Simonides a splendid reward. He was stopped, however, by a laborer, who said he had seen the Greek slip the little chest from his sleeve into the hole. There was a dispute of considerable violence, and eventually the decision of the points of authentieitv and veracity was postponed to the next d"ay. That was the last Ibrahim Pasha saw of Simonides. Two months later Simonidea appeared at the British Museum with a memorandum of the General Belisarina to the Emperor Justinian. He sold it for $3200 to the Duke of Sutherland, and also disposed of a beautiful letter from Alcibiades to Pericles to the same purchaser for $1000. When the fraud was discovered Simonides was away off on the Continent again. No trace of him could be found, and the scholars'ot Europe hoped and thought they were at last relieved of thia disturber of the traditions of antiquity. One day, however, the news came from the, Athos cloisters that the indefatigable forger was loose again, under the assumed name of Baricourt. The monks throughout that part of the world were warned against him. and he was eventually caught in the Iberian cloister in the act of adding to an old manuscript a little supplementary matter of his own composition. He was rushed out, the warning against him was published far and near, and he was made so notorious that his profession ceased to be profitable. One of the last meetings of the learned doctor with a man of the world occurred in Corfu a few years ago. A' correspondent v of the Vienna Tageblatt returned to his room in the Hotel St. GeorgA one evening to find on his table a card bearing the words: "The deceased Dr. Alcibiades Simonidea. k Meet m« on the Esplanade at midnight to learn of a matter of the greatest \ importance." .At the midnight meeting Simonidea * explained ' that he ; called himself deceased, not only oeoause h« w»* dead to the world, but because in a recent illness he had been pronounced physically dead, had been put into his coma and - lowered into hia grave, and had beea aroused by tha gravel' tailing on the lid just in time to secure his release by a tremendous knocking and groaning. The purpose of Simonidea' appointment, however, waa to show a dooument. apparently written hf Leopold the Glorious, in whioh the Babeaberger Prince related in the form ot a diary hia experiences during the Crusades.Jincludinjj some highly interesting particulars of hi* meeting with Kiohard the Lion-Haartstl. Simonides described how ho had picked up this work in Jerusalem, and had brought it away with tbe idea of selling it to the Vienna Academy of Sciences. At the time of hia death Simonidea waa seventy- two. He was of medium height, thin as a bone, and moved mechanically. ll* had small eyes, a jaundiced akin and lips Uk* paper. A big black beard hung to his waist. While conversing he held his anna crossed oa hia breast. He never smiled, had no fnends, and died alone without leaving a person ta mo arn° for him. He had existed for nearly forty years by imposing on men ot great learning in the field of their" special knowledge. Ha waa probably one of the most erudite raacaLa that ever lived."
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DAC18901109.2.117&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------
You can get a sense of his some of tactics form the above.
AN ERUDITE RASCAL
A Master of Drawing and Lithography and a Fine Chemist.
He Deceives the Most Learned Men of This Century.
Alcibiades Simonides Dies After Imposing on His Fellow Men For Nearly Forty Years.
New York Sun
A Master of Drawing and Lithography and a Fine Chemist.
He Deceives the Most Learned Men of This Century.
Alcibiades Simonides Dies After Imposing on His Fellow Men For Nearly Forty Years.
New York Sun
"In an Albanian village there died recently one of the most original and artistic swindlers of the present century. Alcibiadea Simonidea was a master of drawing, a fine lithographer and an excellent chemiat. He waa an omnivoroua reader of history, which he retained to the smallest details in the iron grip of hia memory. He had eloquence, ingenuity and perseverance. All of this talents he devoted to a single purpose. He made a profession of swindling the most learned of his contemporaries. Simonides made his debut at the age of thirty-five at Athens. He then laid before the King of Greece a mass of apparently priceless manuscripts. They were seemingly of great antiquity, and included works which had long been lost to civilization. Simonidea explained that he and His uncle had discovered the manuscripts in the Cloister Chilandarim on Mount Athos. He told just how and when the manuscripts were found, and fortified every sentence with copious references to literary history and classical authorities. The King bought $10,000 worth of the tieasurea and Simonides disappeared. .« In a year he was back again with another batch of marvellously valuable old manuscripts. Among them was an ancient Homer, written on lotos leaves, and accompanied by a complete commentary of Eustatius. The King wished to buy the whole lot. but could not see his way clear to raising money for more than half ot* it. The rest of the manuscripts he recommended for purchase to the University of Athens. The rector of the university was not without misgivings as to the smooth stories of Simonides,' and at his suggestion a commission of twelve scholars was appointed to test the genuineness ol the documents. After a long investigation eleven members of the commission reported that the manuscripts were authentic. The twelfth, Professor Mavraki, called lor a new investigation, which was eventually made. The result was the discovery that Simonides' Homer was a verbatim copy,- even to the typographical errors, of Wolff's edition. .The commission summoned Simonides to appear before it and explain, but he had got wind of the state of affairs and had skipped away with the proceeds of hia sales to the King. For a few years he was completely lost to view. His perlormance in Athens was almost forgotten. In the middle of the sixties he turned up, unrecognized and unsuspected, in Constantinople, with- an old Greek work. concerning hieroglyphics and an Assyrian manuscript with an interlinear Phoenician translation. For the delectation of Armenian scholars he had also brought a Greek history of Armenia. He found patrona enouzh and had Boon transformed his manuscript into cash to the amount of about $40,000. When the introduction and the first chapter of the Armenian history were published, it was remarked that the names of the Armenian Generals were not Armenian, and Simoxides was again missing when called upon for explanations. The slight historical error as to the Armenian Generals and their names wound up the first period of Simonides' career, and led him to vary somewhat his manner of working in his future schemes. The first evidence of this change was his announcement to western European scholars some time later that he possessed a roll dating from the days when the French and Venetians ruled Constantinople. In this roll, he said, a monk had recorded that there were buried manuscripts of great age and value at various spots on the Bosphorua. The location of these apota was described accurately in the roll. * In a certain cloister, Simonides aaid. might be found the Acts of the first Apostolic Concilium of Antioch. Eventually Simonidea sought the aid ot the Patriarch in unearthing these treasures. The Patriarch, however, answered that " these acts were superfluous. Either they confirmed or contradicted the canons of the Greek Church. In the first case they were useless; in the second they were worse than useless, and the finding of them would be a criminal deed." Simonidea then waited on the Minister of Public Works, Ismail Pasha. The Pasha was in hia harem when Simonides called, and so the forger busied himself with a little exploration of the garden while waiting. He buried a small box under a big fig tree there, and, when the Pasha appeared, remarked that the garden seemed to be the location of buried manuscripts mentioned in this and that classical work. After screwing the Pasha's . interest up to the necessary ardor, he suggested that digging for the manuscripts should begin at once. He directed that the first excavation be made under the fig tree. In a few minutes the Pasha's workmen struck a curious old box, in which lay a bit of discolored parchment bearing a poem ostensibly written by Aristotle. The Pasha was delighted and filled Simonides hands with Turkish money. A few days later Ismail was bronght down from the clouds by the remark of his gardener that the fig tree in question had been transplanted only twenty years before, and that all the ground on and about the epot where the box was found had been dag up thoroughly at that time. The Pasha's chagrin was so great that he made no effort to bring Simonides to justice. The cunning old Greek .derived encouragement from the impunity with which he had executed his last maneuver. He looked aronnd for another Turkish victim, and decided that he had found him in Ibrahim Pasha. Ibrahim had just broken ground for the erection of a building on the site of the ancient Byzantine hippodrome. Simonides told him that a few yards below the surface, at a certain epot, there must be an Arabian manuscript.- The Pasha's workmen dug there, but found nothing. " Let me dig," exclaimed Simonides. He dug, and in five minutes handed the Pasha a curious bronze box. Within it was an Arabian poem on parchment. The Pasha wished immediately to give Simonides a splendid reward. He was stopped, however, by a laborer, who said he had seen the Greek slip the little chest from his sleeve into the hole. There was a dispute of considerable violence, and eventually the decision of the points of authentieitv and veracity was postponed to the next d"ay. That was the last Ibrahim Pasha saw of Simonides. Two months later Simonidea appeared at the British Museum with a memorandum of the General Belisarina to the Emperor Justinian. He sold it for $3200 to the Duke of Sutherland, and also disposed of a beautiful letter from Alcibiades to Pericles to the same purchaser for $1000. When the fraud was discovered Simonides was away off on the Continent again. No trace of him could be found, and the scholars'ot Europe hoped and thought they were at last relieved of thia disturber of the traditions of antiquity. One day, however, the news came from the, Athos cloisters that the indefatigable forger was loose again, under the assumed name of Baricourt. The monks throughout that part of the world were warned against him. and he was eventually caught in the Iberian cloister in the act of adding to an old manuscript a little supplementary matter of his own composition. He was rushed out, the warning against him was published far and near, and he was made so notorious that his profession ceased to be profitable. One of the last meetings of the learned doctor with a man of the world occurred in Corfu a few years ago. A' correspondent v of the Vienna Tageblatt returned to his room in the Hotel St. GeorgA one evening to find on his table a card bearing the words: "The deceased Dr. Alcibiades Simonidea. k Meet m« on the Esplanade at midnight to learn of a matter of the greatest \ importance." .At the midnight meeting Simonidea * explained ' that he ; called himself deceased, not only oeoause h« w»* dead to the world, but because in a recent illness he had been pronounced physically dead, had been put into his coma and - lowered into hia grave, and had beea aroused by tha gravel' tailing on the lid just in time to secure his release by a tremendous knocking and groaning. The purpose of Simonidea' appointment, however, waa to show a dooument. apparently written hf Leopold the Glorious, in whioh the Babeaberger Prince related in the form ot a diary hia experiences during the Crusades.Jincludinjj some highly interesting particulars of hi* meeting with Kiohard the Lion-Haartstl. Simonides described how ho had picked up this work in Jerusalem, and had brought it away with tbe idea of selling it to the Vienna Academy of Sciences. At the time of hia death Simonidea waa seventy- two. He was of medium height, thin as a bone, and moved mechanically. ll* had small eyes, a jaundiced akin and lips Uk* paper. A big black beard hung to his waist. While conversing he held his anna crossed oa hia breast. He never smiled, had no fnends, and died alone without leaving a person ta mo arn° for him. He had existed for nearly forty years by imposing on men ot great learning in the field of their" special knowledge. Ha waa probably one of the most erudite raacaLa that ever lived."
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DAC18901109.2.117&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------
You can get a sense of his some of tactics form the above.
Steven Avery
Well-known member
“Simonidea explained that he and His uncle had discovered the manuscripts in the Cloister Chilandarim on Mount Athos.”
That should help you in checking floor plans.
That should help you in checking floor plans.
TwoNoteableCorruptions
Well-known member
Just like he conveniently found those manuscripts and boxes "under" things in Turkey etc, ay, Steven. 😉😉 (wink wink). Ya no what I mean (wink wink ay Gov...)
The plausibility and name dropping is simply all part of the grooming process of his victims, Steven.
And...(note everybody) the Athos cloisters (plural) also put out news warnings (that eventually spread around the world) against Simonides as an "indefatigable forger".
In the same news paper article.
Simonides was simply a compulsive, calculating, cunning, and habitual liar.
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TwoNoteableCorruptions
Well-known member
Look.
The "buried manuscripts" sales pitch!
And...note everybody...
"In a certain cloister"
A sales pitch grooming strategy he would use on his unsuspecting victims again and again.
Simonides was simply a compulsive, calculating, cunning, and habitual liar.
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AN ERUDITE RASCAL
A Master of Drawing and Lithography and a Fine Chemist.
He Deceives the Most Learned Men of This Century.
Alcibiades Simonides Dies After Imposing on His Fellow Men For Nearly Forty Years.
New York Sun [Daily Alta California, 9 Nov 1890]
"In an Albanian village there died recently one of the most original and artistic swindlers of the present century. Alcibiades Simonidea was a master of drawing, a fine lithographer and an excellent chemist. He was an omnivorous reader of history, which he retained to the smallest details in the iron grip of his memory. He had eloquence, ingenuity and perseverance. All of these talents he devoted to a single purpose. He made a profession of swindling the most learned of his contemporaries.
Simonides made his debut at the age of thirty-five at Athens. He then laid before the King of Greece a mass of apparently priceless manuscripts. They were seemingly of great antiquity, and included works which had long been lost to civilization. Simonides explained that he and His uncle had discovered the manuscripts in the Cloister Chilandarim on Mount Athos. He told just how and when the manuscripts were found, and fortified every sentence with copious references to literary history and classical authorities. The King bought $10,000 worth of the treasures and Simonides disappeared. In a year he was back again with another batch of marvelously valuable old manuscripts. Among them was an ancient Homer, written on lotus leaves, and accompanied by a complete commentary of Eustatius. The King wished to buy the whole lot. but could not see his way clear to raising money for more than half of it. The rest of the manuscripts he recommended for purchase to the University of Athens. The rector of the university was not without misgivings as to the smooth stories of Simonides', and at his suggestion a commission of twelve scholars was appointed to test the genuineness of the documents. After a long investigation eleven members of the commission reported that the manuscripts were authentic. The twelfth, Professor Mavraki, called lor a new investigation, which was eventually made. The result was the discovery that Simonides' Homer was a verbatim copy, - even to the typographical errors, of Wolff's edition.
The commission summoned Simonides to appear before it and explain, but he had got wind of the state of affairs and had skipped away with the proceeds of his sales to the King. For a few years he was completely lost to view. His performance in Athens was almost forgotten. In the middle of the sixties he turned up, unrecognized and unsuspected, in Constantinople, with an old Greek work. concerning hieroglyphics and an Assyrian manuscript with an interlinear Phoenician translation. For the delectation of Armenian scholars he had also brought a Greek history of Armenia. He found patrons enough and had Boon transformed his manuscript into cash to the amount of about $40,000. When the introduction and the first chapter of the Armenian history were published, it was remarked that the names of the Armenian Generals were not Armenian, and Simonides was again missing when called upon for explanations.
The slight historical error as to the Armenian Generals and their names wound up the first period of Simonides' career, and led him to vary somewhat his manner of working in his future schemes. The first evidence of this change was his announcement to western European scholars some time later that he possessed a roll dating from the days when the French and Venetians ruled Constantinople. In this roll, he said, a monk had recorded that there were buried manuscripts of great age and value at various spots on the Bosphorus. The location of these spots was described accurately in the roll. *
In a certain cloister, Simonides said. might be found the Acts of the first Apostolic Concilium of Antioch. Eventually Simonides sought the aid ot the Patriarch in unearthing these treasures. The Patriarch, however, answered that " these acts were superfluous. Either they confirmed or contradicted the canons of the Greek Church. In the first case they were useless; in the second they were worse than useless, and the finding of them would be a criminal deed."
Simonides then waited on the Minister of Public Works, Ismail Pasha. The Pasha was in his harem when Simonides called, and so the forger busied himself with a little exploration of the garden while waiting. He buried a small box under a big fig tree there, and, when the Pasha appeared, remarked that the garden seemed to be the location of buried manuscripts mentioned in this and that classical work. After screwing the Pasha's interest up to the necessary ardor, he suggested that digging for the manuscripts should begin at once. He directed that the first excavation be made under the fig tree. In a few minutes the Pasha's workmen struck a curious old box, in which lay a bit of discolored parchment bearing a poem ostensibly written by Aristotle. The Pasha was delighted and filled Simonides hands with Turkish money. A few days later Ismail was brought down from the clouds by the remark of his gardener that the fig tree in question had been transplanted only twenty years before, and that all the ground on and about the spot where the box was found had been dug up thoroughly at that time. The Pasha's chagrin was so great that he made no effort to bring Simonides to justice. The cunning old Greek derived encouragement from the impunity with which he had executed his last maneuver.
He looked around for another Turkish victim and decided that he had found him in Ibrahim Pasha. Ibrahim had just broken ground for the erection of a building on the site of the ancient Byzantine hippodrome. Simonides told him that a few yards below the surface, at a certain spot, there must be an Arabian manuscript.- The Pasha's workmen dug there, but found nothing. " Let me dig," exclaimed Simonides. He dug, and in five minutes handed the Pasha a curious bronze box. Within it was an Arabian poem on parchment. The Pasha wished immediately to give Simonides a splendid reward. He was stopped, however, by a laborer, who said he had seen the Greek slip the little chest from his sleeve into the hole. There was a dispute of considerable violence, and eventually the decision of the points of authenticity and veracity was postponed to the next day. That was the last Ibrahim Pasha saw of Simonides.
Two months later Simonides appeared at the British Museum with a memorandum of the General Belisarius to the Emperor Justinian. He sold it for $3200 to the Duke of Sutherland, and also disposed of a beautiful letter from Alcibiades to Pericles to the same purchaser for $1000. When the fraud was discovered Simonides was away off on the Continent again. No trace of him could be found, and the scholars of Europe hoped and thought they were at last relieved of this disturber of the traditions of antiquity. One day, however, the news came from the Athos cloisters that the indefatigable forger was loose again, under the assumed name of Baricourt. The monks throughout that part of the world were warned against him. and he was eventually caught in the Iberian cloister in the act of adding to an old manuscript a little supplementary matter of his own composition. He was rushed out, the warning against him was published far and near, and he was made so notorious that his profession ceased to be profitable.
One of the last meetings of the learned doctor with a man of the world occurred in Corfu a few years ago. A correspondent of the Vienna Tageblatt returned to his room in the Hotel St. George one evening to find on his table a card bearing the words: "The deceased Dr. Alcibiades Simonides. Meet me on the Esplanade at midnight to learn of a matter of the greatest importance." At the midnight meeting Simonides explained that he called himself deceased, not only because he was dead to the world, but because in a recent illness he had been pronounced physically dead, had been put into his coma and lowered into his grave, and had been aroused by the gravel falling on the lid just in time to secure his release by a tremendous knocking and groaning. The purpose of Simonides' appointment, however, was to show a document. apparently written by Leopold the Glorious, in which the Babeaberger Prince related in the form of a diary his experiences during the Crusades, including some highly interesting particulars of his meeting with Richard the Lion-Hearted. Simonides described how he had picked up this work in Jerusalem, and had brought it away with the idea of selling it to the Vienna Academy of Sciences.
At the time of his death Simonides was seventy-two. He was of medium height, thin as a bone, and moved mechanically. He had small eyes, a jaundiced skin and lips like paper. A big black beard hung to his waist. While conversing he held his arms crossed on his breast. He never smiled, had no fnends, and died alone without leaving a person to mourn for him. He had existed for nearly forty years by imposing on men of great learning in the field of their special knowledge. He was probably one of the most erudite rascals that ever lived.
* * * * * *
Divided into paragraphs according to my whim. Typos corrected if I spotted them.
A Master of Drawing and Lithography and a Fine Chemist.
He Deceives the Most Learned Men of This Century.
Alcibiades Simonides Dies After Imposing on His Fellow Men For Nearly Forty Years.
New York Sun [Daily Alta California, 9 Nov 1890]
"In an Albanian village there died recently one of the most original and artistic swindlers of the present century. Alcibiades Simonidea was a master of drawing, a fine lithographer and an excellent chemist. He was an omnivorous reader of history, which he retained to the smallest details in the iron grip of his memory. He had eloquence, ingenuity and perseverance. All of these talents he devoted to a single purpose. He made a profession of swindling the most learned of his contemporaries.
Simonides made his debut at the age of thirty-five at Athens. He then laid before the King of Greece a mass of apparently priceless manuscripts. They were seemingly of great antiquity, and included works which had long been lost to civilization. Simonides explained that he and His uncle had discovered the manuscripts in the Cloister Chilandarim on Mount Athos. He told just how and when the manuscripts were found, and fortified every sentence with copious references to literary history and classical authorities. The King bought $10,000 worth of the treasures and Simonides disappeared. In a year he was back again with another batch of marvelously valuable old manuscripts. Among them was an ancient Homer, written on lotus leaves, and accompanied by a complete commentary of Eustatius. The King wished to buy the whole lot. but could not see his way clear to raising money for more than half of it. The rest of the manuscripts he recommended for purchase to the University of Athens. The rector of the university was not without misgivings as to the smooth stories of Simonides', and at his suggestion a commission of twelve scholars was appointed to test the genuineness of the documents. After a long investigation eleven members of the commission reported that the manuscripts were authentic. The twelfth, Professor Mavraki, called lor a new investigation, which was eventually made. The result was the discovery that Simonides' Homer was a verbatim copy, - even to the typographical errors, of Wolff's edition.
The commission summoned Simonides to appear before it and explain, but he had got wind of the state of affairs and had skipped away with the proceeds of his sales to the King. For a few years he was completely lost to view. His performance in Athens was almost forgotten. In the middle of the sixties he turned up, unrecognized and unsuspected, in Constantinople, with an old Greek work. concerning hieroglyphics and an Assyrian manuscript with an interlinear Phoenician translation. For the delectation of Armenian scholars he had also brought a Greek history of Armenia. He found patrons enough and had Boon transformed his manuscript into cash to the amount of about $40,000. When the introduction and the first chapter of the Armenian history were published, it was remarked that the names of the Armenian Generals were not Armenian, and Simonides was again missing when called upon for explanations.
The slight historical error as to the Armenian Generals and their names wound up the first period of Simonides' career, and led him to vary somewhat his manner of working in his future schemes. The first evidence of this change was his announcement to western European scholars some time later that he possessed a roll dating from the days when the French and Venetians ruled Constantinople. In this roll, he said, a monk had recorded that there were buried manuscripts of great age and value at various spots on the Bosphorus. The location of these spots was described accurately in the roll. *
In a certain cloister, Simonides said. might be found the Acts of the first Apostolic Concilium of Antioch. Eventually Simonides sought the aid ot the Patriarch in unearthing these treasures. The Patriarch, however, answered that " these acts were superfluous. Either they confirmed or contradicted the canons of the Greek Church. In the first case they were useless; in the second they were worse than useless, and the finding of them would be a criminal deed."
Simonides then waited on the Minister of Public Works, Ismail Pasha. The Pasha was in his harem when Simonides called, and so the forger busied himself with a little exploration of the garden while waiting. He buried a small box under a big fig tree there, and, when the Pasha appeared, remarked that the garden seemed to be the location of buried manuscripts mentioned in this and that classical work. After screwing the Pasha's interest up to the necessary ardor, he suggested that digging for the manuscripts should begin at once. He directed that the first excavation be made under the fig tree. In a few minutes the Pasha's workmen struck a curious old box, in which lay a bit of discolored parchment bearing a poem ostensibly written by Aristotle. The Pasha was delighted and filled Simonides hands with Turkish money. A few days later Ismail was brought down from the clouds by the remark of his gardener that the fig tree in question had been transplanted only twenty years before, and that all the ground on and about the spot where the box was found had been dug up thoroughly at that time. The Pasha's chagrin was so great that he made no effort to bring Simonides to justice. The cunning old Greek derived encouragement from the impunity with which he had executed his last maneuver.
He looked around for another Turkish victim and decided that he had found him in Ibrahim Pasha. Ibrahim had just broken ground for the erection of a building on the site of the ancient Byzantine hippodrome. Simonides told him that a few yards below the surface, at a certain spot, there must be an Arabian manuscript.- The Pasha's workmen dug there, but found nothing. " Let me dig," exclaimed Simonides. He dug, and in five minutes handed the Pasha a curious bronze box. Within it was an Arabian poem on parchment. The Pasha wished immediately to give Simonides a splendid reward. He was stopped, however, by a laborer, who said he had seen the Greek slip the little chest from his sleeve into the hole. There was a dispute of considerable violence, and eventually the decision of the points of authenticity and veracity was postponed to the next day. That was the last Ibrahim Pasha saw of Simonides.
Two months later Simonides appeared at the British Museum with a memorandum of the General Belisarius to the Emperor Justinian. He sold it for $3200 to the Duke of Sutherland, and also disposed of a beautiful letter from Alcibiades to Pericles to the same purchaser for $1000. When the fraud was discovered Simonides was away off on the Continent again. No trace of him could be found, and the scholars of Europe hoped and thought they were at last relieved of this disturber of the traditions of antiquity. One day, however, the news came from the Athos cloisters that the indefatigable forger was loose again, under the assumed name of Baricourt. The monks throughout that part of the world were warned against him. and he was eventually caught in the Iberian cloister in the act of adding to an old manuscript a little supplementary matter of his own composition. He was rushed out, the warning against him was published far and near, and he was made so notorious that his profession ceased to be profitable.
One of the last meetings of the learned doctor with a man of the world occurred in Corfu a few years ago. A correspondent of the Vienna Tageblatt returned to his room in the Hotel St. George one evening to find on his table a card bearing the words: "The deceased Dr. Alcibiades Simonides. Meet me on the Esplanade at midnight to learn of a matter of the greatest importance." At the midnight meeting Simonides explained that he called himself deceased, not only because he was dead to the world, but because in a recent illness he had been pronounced physically dead, had been put into his coma and lowered into his grave, and had been aroused by the gravel falling on the lid just in time to secure his release by a tremendous knocking and groaning. The purpose of Simonides' appointment, however, was to show a document. apparently written by Leopold the Glorious, in which the Babeaberger Prince related in the form of a diary his experiences during the Crusades, including some highly interesting particulars of his meeting with Richard the Lion-Hearted. Simonides described how he had picked up this work in Jerusalem, and had brought it away with the idea of selling it to the Vienna Academy of Sciences.
At the time of his death Simonides was seventy-two. He was of medium height, thin as a bone, and moved mechanically. He had small eyes, a jaundiced skin and lips like paper. A big black beard hung to his waist. While conversing he held his arms crossed on his breast. He never smiled, had no fnends, and died alone without leaving a person to mourn for him. He had existed for nearly forty years by imposing on men of great learning in the field of their special knowledge. He was probably one of the most erudite rascals that ever lived.
* * * * * *
Divided into paragraphs according to my whim. Typos corrected if I spotted them.
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Steven Avery
Well-known member
This is about 15 years after he was part of the making of Codex Sinaiticus (Simoneidos.)
Again, it seems paradoxical that Simonides could have worked up such a perfect fabrication as Sinaiticus in his teens, and yet subsequently produced such unconvincing and readily exposed fabrications in his mature years.
By the way, I admit to missing some typos in my redux of the Daily Alta California obit of Simonides. To begin with, his name in the first sentence; in my penultimate paragraph that "he was put into his coffin". In the same penultimate paragraph, I don't know whether or how to correct "Babeaberger Prince", perhaps a history buff recognizes what the name should be.
By the way, I admit to missing some typos in my redux of the Daily Alta California obit of Simonides. To begin with, his name in the first sentence; in my penultimate paragraph that "he was put into his coffin". In the same penultimate paragraph, I don't know whether or how to correct "Babeaberger Prince", perhaps a history buff recognizes what the name should be.
What are you referring to exactly? You're not making a lot of sense.
Check ur messages
The title he excerpted from is called "The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club" by Christopher De Hamel. It came out 10/27.
https://smile.amazon.com/POSTHUMOUS-PAPERS-MANUSCRIPTS/dp/0241304377/ref=sr_1_1?crid=WDQJABG6XK0W&keywords=posthumous+papers+of+the+manuscripts+club&qid=1668957272&s=books&sprefix=posthumous+papers+,stripbooks,120&sr=1-1
https://www.worldcat.org/title/1338682344
https://smile.amazon.com/POSTHUMOUS-PAPERS-MANUSCRIPTS/dp/0241304377/ref=sr_1_1?crid=WDQJABG6XK0W&keywords=posthumous+papers+of+the+manuscripts+club&qid=1668957272&s=books&sprefix=posthumous+papers+,stripbooks,120&sr=1-1
https://www.worldcat.org/title/1338682344
TwoNoteableCorruptions
Well-known member
Simonides already practiced his name dropping strategy (my venerable and well respected Orthodox Priest "uncle" from such and such a monastery on holy Mt Athos) combined with ye old hidden "manuscripts" punch line.
This was not a new grooming strategy.
He had refined it over time, having already used it successfully on the King of Greece (he got the $$$).
Steven Avery
Well-known member
Are you familiar with the Benedict references, that work with dates before the Sinaiticus controversy, e.g. in the 2015 Genius book?
Or in the Lambrou catalog?
Or the Lykurgos bio?
Are you following a specific journalist, historian, writer etc?
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