Melchor Díaz de Toledo or the shaping of a hoax

Authorship and fraud in the eighteenth century

Abstract

When in 1776 Poesías de Melchor Díaz de Toledo, poeta del siglo XVI hasta ahora no conocido were published, few knew of the deceit hidden behind the manuscript supposedly discovered by Cándido María Trigueros containing the poems. Not only the philological analysis of these, but also their context and the pretentions that led the Toledan writer to create this heteronym are crucial when tackling the 18^th century author and the shaping of a forged seventeenth-century literature.