VMs: what hoax?

["Barbara Barrett" <barbarabarrett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Barbara babbles;
One thing a hoax has to be; and that is it must pretend to be something it
is not, something that is well known and sought after by the victims of the
hoaxer. So the question struck me "If the VMS is a hoax, what is it a hoax
of?".

I don't think anyone could have thought that a "mysterious book" on its own
would have generated much interest, certainly not enough interest to command
a high sale price, so to make it valuable the sellers of the VMS would have
had to have claimed that the vms was "something", and that something would
have to be known to the victims: but what could that be?

The only thing I could come up with that'd be (in)famous enough in the given
probable time frame was Nicolas Flammel's "unreadable book" reportedly given
to him by an angel which contained the secrets of the philosopher's stone;
imortality and inexaustable wealth; and which he spent a great deal of his
life trying to find someone to translate for him.

Of course there's flaws in this idea (the lack of alchemical symbolism and a
metalurgey section for a start) but can anyone else come up with possible
candidates for what the vms might be a hoax of (if it is a hoax).

Barbara


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