This articles focuses on pseudotranslations. Pseudotranslations are usually ascribed a range of different functions, such as: to bypass censorship, to endow a new work with the authority of an alleged source, to stimulate readers into interpretative cooperation by passing original authors off as second-degree writers, and to introduce innovation into the literary system. In fact, the practice of pseudotranslation appeals not only to the standard relationship between source and target texts, but also that between the respective literary systems as such. For example, it enables the writers of the target system to act as the authors they pretend to translate, appropriating their techniques as well as their social profile. This was particularly evident in eighteenth-century Italy, when novelists had extensive recourse to pseudotranslations in order to be credited with the same degree of authority and, above all, authorship as their English and French models. The tactic proved effective at a time when the Italian literary system was felt to lack a novel tradition and was still dominated by the compositional principles of imitatio and aemulatio.