[Rarebooks] fa: OSSIAN - PHINGALEIS, sive HIBERNIA LIBERATA - Alexander MacDonald 1820

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, February 24. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/adcbh8k

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Alexander MacDonald; [James Macpherson]: Phingaleis, sive Hibernia Liberata, Epicum Ossianis Poema, E celtico sermone conversum, tribus praemissis disputationibus et subsequentibus notis; Benigneque annuenti Augusto Frederico, serenissimo Sussexiae Duci, dicatum. Ab Alexandro MacDonald. Edinburgi [Edinburgh]: J. Moir, MDCCCXX [1820]. FIRST EDITION. Tall 8vo (24.5 cm) in full calf, boards with Celtic patterned borders tooled in blind, gilt-lettered leather spine label; marbled page edges; 228 pp.; errata slip tipped in at the last leaf.

A handsome copy of this Latin rendering of Ossian's Fingal, a Celtic epic which was alleged to have originated in the 3rd century. "Discovered" by James Macpherson in the obscurer regions of the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides and first "translated" by him, Ossian's poems, when published in the 1760s, created an immediate sensation as well as a firestorm of controversy. Samuel Johnson and others dismissed Fingal and the other works as modern forgeries concocted by Macpherson himself. Macpherson was never able to produce the original manuscripts from which he had reputedly worked and it is generally believed that the works were indeed his own creation, with healthy dollops of authentic old Gaelic and English poetry thrown in. Hoax or not, the poetry of "Ossian" had a profound effect on many of the leading figures of the next fifty years, including Lord Byron, Goethe, Blake, Sir Walter Scott and Napoleon, and arguably did more than any other single work to get the Romantic movement moving.

Modest rubbing and wear to the edges and extremities, hinges rubbed with 1" cracks at the spine head but both boards are secure; occasional light foxing to the leaves, but the contents are generally very clean, bright and fresh, securely bound. Front paste-down with the engraved armorial bookplate of Sir Robert Johnson Eden, Bart.