From picturesque anecdote to viral story: the many lives of the "Sculptor of Bruges" (1837–1886).

The article presents a case study of a forgotten text: a Flemish story written by Joseph Octave Delepierre about a Bruges sculptor, published in French in 1837. It mentions technological innovations and legal circumstances created the settings in which the story could go viral, what made it so attractive for reuse was its thematic diversity; and also mentions lack of international copyright legislation until the 1886 Berne Convention meant that for most of the century texts could be copied.