Not much is known about Konstantinos Simonides, the ingenious manuscript forgerer.
He was born on the Greek island of Simi in 1820. After studying the art of manuscripting at Mount Athos, he managed to deceive prominent people from different paths of life in Greece and also England, Germany, Russia, Egypt. He sold his own manuscripts passing them as belonging to famous writers, or even to writers that never existed. Aparently he was extremely crafty forgering manuscripts and that is what he was known for.
Recently in Germany, his biography was released by Rüdiger Schaper, depicting the forgerer not as twisted mind but as symptom of his time. According to the biographer, Simonides was just trying to fill the huge gap between the ancient Greece and the- at the time- new born Greek nation. The biography intends to restore his name for posterity.
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