Found manuscript

A found manuscript (also, discovered manuscript, imaginary manuscript,) refers to a literary trope in which a work of literature makes a reference to another work, claimed to exist but in fact being fictitious, and which usually is an important plot element; or claims to be such a work; or claims to be based on it.

History

thumb|An early example of the trope is [[Don Quixote, which Miguel de Cervantes claimed was translated from an Arabic text by the nonexistent Cide Hamete Benengeli.]]

According to L. Sprague de Camp, the earliest known example of a fictional book would be the Book of Thoth, an alleged holy or magical text from the era of Ancient Egypt, mentioned in a tale from that period ("Setne Khamwas and Si-Osire"). and Gothic fiction. It has been used due to public's growing interest in real history, including in rediscovering works of ancient or popular authors thought to be lost or unknown. Related is also the tradition of pseudepigrapha (a literary use of false attribution, leading to concepts such as Pseudo-Aristotle and similar).