Denis Vrain-Lucas, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetDenis Vrain-Lucas
French forger
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Lanneray, Centre-Val de Loire, France
About Denis Vrain-Lucas
- Denis Vrain-Lucas (1818–1882) was a French forger who sold counterfeit letters and other documents to French manuscript collectors.
- He even wrote purported letters from biblical figures in French. Denis Vrain-Lucas was trained as a law clerk, but by 1854 he had begun to forge historical documents, especially letters.
- Lucas began by using writing material and self-made inks from the appropriate period and forged mainly documents from French authors.
- He collected historical details from the Imperial library.
- As his forgeries were more readily accepted, he began to produce letters from historical figures. In 1861 Vrain-Lucas approached French mathematician and collector Michel Chasles and sold him forged letters for Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal.
- In one of them Pascal supposedly claimed that he had discovered the laws of gravity before Newton.
- Since this would have meant that a Frenchman would have discovered gravity before an Englishman, Chasles accepted the letter and asked for more.
- Lucas proceeded to sell him hundreds of letters from historical and biblical figures, using contemporary French. Over 16 years Vrain-Lucas forged total of 27,000 autographs, letters, and other documents from such luminaries as Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, Joan of Arc, Cicero and Dante Alighieri - written in contemporary French and on watermarked paper.
- The most prominent French collectors bought them, helping Lucas accumulate a significant wealth of hundreds of thousands of francs. In 1867 Chasles approached the French Academy of Science, claiming to have proof that Pascal had discovered gravity before Newton.
- When he showed them the letters, scholars of the Academy noticed that the handwriting was very different compared to letters that were definitely by Pascal.
- Chasles defended the letters' authenticity but was eventually forced to reveal that Vrain-Lucas had sold them to him. When Academy members complained about the anachronisms in the letters, Vrain-Lucas had to forge more letters to explain away his earlier mistakes.
- Debate continued on to 1868 and the next year he was arrested for forgery.
- In the following trial Chasles had to testify how he had been duped, how he had purchased large numbers of other forged letters and how he had paid total of 140,000-150,000 francs for them. In February 1870, the Correctional Tribunal of Paris sentenced Vrain-Lucas to two years in prison for forgery.
- He also had to pay a fine for 500 francs and all legal costs.
- Chasles received no restitution for all the money he had wasted on the Vrain-Lucas forgeries.
- After his sentence Lucas disappeared from the public eye.
- In 2004, the journal Critical Inquiry published a recently "discovered" 1871 letter written by Vrain-Lucas (from prison) to Chasles, conveying Vrain-Lucas's perspective on these events, itself an invention.
Read more at Wikipedia
See Also
- Famous People's Birthdays on 01 December, France
- Famous People's Birthdays in December, France
- Famous court clerk's Birthdays on 01 December, France
- Famous court clerk's Birthdays in December, France
- Famous lawyer's clerk's Birthdays on 01 December, France
- Famous lawyer's clerk's Birthdays in December, France
- Famous art forger's Birthdays on 01 December, France
- Famous art forger's Birthdays in December, France