[Daniel Conner Library (Manch House)] – [Ossian] McPherson, James.

The Poems of Ossian, Translated by James MacPherson, Esq. With The Translator’s Dissertations on the Era and Poems of Ossian ; Dr.Blair’s Critical Dissertation; And An Inquiry into the Genuineness of These Poems, Written Expressly for this Edition, by the Rev. Alex[ander] Stewart.

Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd, High-Street, no year [c.1820]. Duodecimo. Frontispice and engraved Titlepage, VIII, 590, 2 pages. Hardcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. Binding slightly shaky but still holding. From the library of Daniel Conner (Connerville / Manch House), with his name in ink to endpaper.

James Macpherson (Gaelic: Seumas MacMhuirich or Seumas Mac a’ Phearsain; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector, and politician. He is known for the Ossian cycle of epic poems, which he claimed to have discovered and translated from Gaelic.
In 1761, Macpherson announced the discovery of an epic on the subject of Fingal supposedly written by Ossian, which he published in December. Like the 1760 Fragments of Ancient Poetry, it was written in musical measured prose. The full title of the work was Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books, together with Several Other Poems composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language. The narrative was related to the Irish mythological character Fionn mac Cumhaill/Finn McCool. The figure of Ossian was based on Fionn’s son Oisín. Fingal takes his name from Fionnghall, meaning “white stranger”. Another related poem, Temora, followed in 1763, and a collected edition, The Works of Ossian, in 1765.

The authenticity of these translations from the works of a 3rd-century bard was immediately challenged by Irish historians, especially Charles O’Conor, who noted technical errors in chronology and in the forming of Gaelic names, and commented on the implausibility of many of Macpherson’s claims, none of which Macpherson was able to substantiate. More forceful denunciations were later made by Samuel Johnson, who asserted (in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775) that Macpherson had found fragments of poems and stories, and then woven them into a romance of his own composition. Further challenges and defences were made well into the nineteenth century, but the issue was moot by then. Macpherson’s manuscript Gaelic “originals” were published posthumously in 1807;[8] Ludwig Christian Stern was sure they were in fact back-translations from his English version. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: Catalogue No.10 – International Literature · Daniel Conner Library · Daniel Conner Library (Connerville / Manch House / Bandon) · Scottish History · Scottish History Rare · Scottish Literature
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 31833AB

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