Around 1500, the trial of Jesus was a popular subject for theological discussions. The question under debate was what guilt the Jews had for Christ's execution. The New Testament does not say that Pilate ever passed a formal death sentence, only that he let them (the crowd) do with Jesus what they wanted. So did the Jews murder Jesus without a legal sentence, or was Pilate indeed responsible for the crucifixion?
A document containing Pilate's written death sentence against Jesus is mentioned in books from the 16th century. From the beginning, this was alleged to have been found at Vienne in France, where Pilate is supposed to have spent the last years of his life. This document is not really a death sentence but more in the nature of a confirmation by Pilate that he has sentenced Jesus to death. The document is said to have been found in a chest and to have been written in Latin, but the Latin text is never quoted by the printed versions. The manuscript itself has never been seen, of course. This indicates that it was a hoax, and it was considered as such as early as the mid-16th century by the learned Bartholomaeus de Salignac.
Many years later, in 1580, a new version of the death sentence was publicised. This time, it was allegedly found in Aquila, near Amiternum where (according to legend) Pilate was born. The local bishop sent the scholar Borello to examine the manuscript and assess its genuineness. Borello was very critical and thought it to be a hoax. The original Italian text has been preserved in print. The "find story" is typical: three chests were found, one of marble, one of iron and one of stone. The document is very long and detailed, and begins with a dating which is given in no less than eight different time reckonings. In its many-worded academic style, it is typical of renaissance hoaxes.
In spite of Borello's refutation, the "sentence" was translated and printed many times over the next couple of centuries. Toward the 19th century, it was largely forgotten. But hoaxes have a tendency to come back. Around 1850 a new sensation was proclaimed. A copper plate containing an engraved Hebrew text with Jesus' death sentence had been rediscovered. According to the find story, the plate had been found at Aquila in 1280, and ended up in a Carthusian monastery near Naples. During the French occupation of Italy 1806-1815, lots of ancient art treasures were confiscated and the French art investigators found the plate. However the monks were allowed to keep it. The French "arts commissioner" Dominique Vivant Denon had a copy made, which was later sold to a British lord.
Nobody has actually seen this plate and the copy has also disappeared. The text exists in various translations which demonstrate that it is a hoax, obviously made by someone who had read the earlier manuscript hoax from Aquila. Large parts of the text is identical. It contains many historical errors, e.g. that Pilate's area of jurisdiction was "lower Galilee", that he sat on a "pretorian chair" (whatever that may be), and that Hannas and Kaiafas are called "the sacrificial priests of God". The dating given is wrong in both Roman and Jewish reckoning. The plate text claims that one copy of the plate has been sent to each of Israel's twelve tribes -- which is nonsense since the tribal organization of Israel ended around 700 BC.