[MACPHERSON, JAMES (trans.)]. The Poems of Ossian. London: Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, MDCCXC. [1790].
NEW EDITION. Complete in two volumes; leather-bound; hardcover; octavo (22 x 13 cm); pp. xiv, [2], 404; [4], 436. Signatures: A-Z8 Aa-Cc8 Dd2, π2 B-Z8 Aa-Ee8 Ff2. English text. Handsomely bound in contemporary mottled calf; smooth spines gilt with black morocco lettering-pieces; speckled page edges. Condition: GOOD. Collated complete. Upper joints starting slightly. Spine ends rubbed. Small worm tracks in the margins to initial and terminal leaves, interiors otherwise well-preserved. Previous owner name plate to front pastedowns.
Notes: James Macpherson (1736–1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the “translator” of the Ossian cycle of epic poems, which he claimed to have collected by word-of-mouth. The authenticity of Macpherson's translations was, however, challenged. Malcolm Laing (1762-1818), Scottish historian and politician, was particularly open about his belief that Macpherson's poems were simply modern compositions. He first put forward this theory in an appendix to his History of Scotland (1800), which included "a severely negative and insensitive criticism of James Macpherson's supposed Gaelic translation" (ODNB).
