Fingal, an ancient epic poem, In six books

4to. pp. [17], ii-xvi, 270. Signatures: A⁴ [a]⁴ a-2M⁴. Original boards, in slipcase. Advertisement leaf at end (not called for by Rothschild, but see ESTC), ‘New books imported by T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt’. Title vignette. Title printed in red and black. 

Large paper issue of the 1761 poem by James Macpherson (1736-1796), who was in literary and cultural terms perhaps the most influential of all forgers. Repeatedly encouraged by the Edinburgh literati, though professedly reluctant to continue his research into Gaelic literary remains in remote Highland and Hebridean outposts, Macpherson soon came up with an astonishingly extensive ‘find:’ a 19,000-word epic by ‘Ossian,’ a blind bard of third-century Argyllshire, recounting the fading glory of his warrior-brethren among the Highland clans.

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