Monday, January 25, 2010

Fake Books

Having trouble finding Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Vampire or Vesalius' Five Books on the Structure of the Vampire Body?

Well, stop your searching. They don't exist.

Their origins aren't in history, but from "The Science of Vampires - Part II" article from The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency website.

How do I know they're fake?

For starters, check out the FVZA's disclaimer on its homepage:
This site is is fictional and is for entertainment purposes only. We are not affiliated with the U.S. Government in any way. Under no cirumstances are you to harm anyone based on information from this site.
Second, the book titles are obvious riffs on better-known (and real) books.

Henry Gray (1827-1861) was the author of Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (1858), commonly shortened to Gray's Anatomy. Yes, that's where the TV show derived its name.

Meanwhile, [Andreas] Vesalius (1514-1564) is best known for De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (1543) a.k.a. "The Seven Books on the Structure of the Human Body".


Another fake work that appears on the site is Ludovico Fatinelli's Treatise on Vampires (1616).

This time, we have a case of not only a fake book, but a fake author, too.

A reference to his fake work even appears in Wikipedia's "Vlad III the Impaler" page:
A veritable epidemic of vampirism swept through Eastern Europe beginning in the late 17th century and continuing through the 1700s. The number of reported cases rose dramatically in Hungary and the Balkans. From the Balkans, the "plague" spread westward into Germany, Italy, France, England, and Spain. Travelers returning from the Balkans brought with them tales of the undead, igniting an interest in the vampire that has continued to this day. Philosophers in the West began to study the phenomenon. It was during this period that Ludovico Fatinelli wrote his famous treatise on vampirism in Hungary. It was also during this period that authors and playwrights first began to explore the vampire legend.
I mean, come on. The FVZA's Fatinelli article even credits him with paving "the way for important work by scientists like the Englishman Edward Jenner, who created the first vaccine in 1795."

Surely that should be a giveaway.

You'd be hard-pressed to find Edward Jenner (1749-1823) giving credit to his research into smallpox vaccine to an imaginary Italian scientist!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

indeed, ludovico fatinelli doesn't exist , the italian form is lodovico and not ludovico that's spanish, fatinelli is a surname from Lucca, but not Florence, and the picture is from Giordano Bruno!!!! im italian and im historian right now im working about werewolves contact me if you wish,all the best, ezechiel

Anthony Hogg said...

That's some pretty interesting info, Ezechiele!

My blog is more concerned with vampires than werewolves, however, so if you got anything of a vampire nature, I'd be interested to hear about it!

Unknown said...

Ezechiele Toti try on google tipe Ludovico then you see how many italian is Ludovico.For disclaimer on fvza website i can tell it is because they(fvza website) will risk big penalty for involving US goverment and other in something what officialy dont exist (AREA 51 dont exist officialy,MAFIA dont exist officialy...)If you want to proved is it Hugo pecos and his website telling true or not just check his files,biography,who is paying him,where is working,his education,old newspapers like sun suntinel or LA Times,memorial in Diablo (Panama) many other names and peoples who are still alive,you have many information you can easily check... why he has speech on veterans day if he is a liar.

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