MACPHERSON, James (1736?1796). The Poems of Ossian. London: printed for A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1790. 2 volumes, 8vo. Contemporary tree calf gilt framed in a Greek key design, crimson spine labels with gilt titles, compartments elegantly tooled in gilt, marbled endpapers, Greek key turn?ins (joints a bit tender, engraved bookplate with previous ownership signatures). Considered to be a monumental literary fraud unparalleled in the history of European scholarly letters, Ossian was entirely a figment of Macpherson?s imagination that was compiled from several fragments of ancient Gaelic poetry that was interspersed within the author?s own work. Lowndes 1736.