Denis Vrain Lucas, *1818 Chateaudun, France, autodidact, employee in a genealogical office

starts to write fake autographs, which he sells to Professor Michel Charles, as first an unedited correspondence between Blaise Pascal and Isaac Newton, then writings from Molière, Rabelais, La Bruyère, Montesquieu, and even Shakespeare.

In 8 years he writes 27345 fakes, which he sells to Charles for more than 140000 francs, but he excetrates and is taken to court: among the evidences are letters from Dante, Galilei, Charles le Témeraire, Jeanne d'Arc, Charlemagne, Dagobert, Verxingetorix, Cleopatra, Saint Lazare to Maria Magdalena, Alexander to Aristoteles, Pontius Pilatus to Tiberius.......

Sources:

Michel Braudeau

Jean Louis Chardan, Dictionnaire des trucs, 1960