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Introduction.
ОглавлениеThe following bibliography makes no claim to absolute completeness. The material required was in some instances so difficult of access, that exact data could not everywhere be given, but most of the entries are based upon personal investigation. Most of the short bibliographies that have hitherto appeared go back directly or indirectly to those of Denis[1] and Gurlitt,[2] both of which are incomplete and not without errors; the former contains less than thirty titles that come into question here.
A few words as to the composition of this bibliography may not be amiss. The pivot of the whole is that collection of the so–called Poems of Ossian published by James Macpherson from 1760 to 1763, and as the titles of the different portions of this collection are frequently misquoted, I have deemed it advisable to prefix them to the German bibliography, together with the most important later editions. As to the German material, we have in the first place to consider the German translations of the whole or a part of these poems, together with the English reprints made in Germany, as well as the translations into other tongues published in Germany.[3] Several other collections, however, are so closely bound up in their influence in Germany with that of Macpherson, that I have not hesitated to include them. In the second place there are the critical essays upon the poems of Ossian, together with the historical and geographical treatises bearing upon the authenticity of the poems. Thirdly, we have an immense category of German imitations, in which department the drawing of strict lines has been most difficult; here the few epigrams and other poems in praise of Ossian may also be inserted. In the department of music I have given a number of compositions that have come directly to my notice. Several paintings and illustrations of scenes from the poems of Ossian are also mentioned, but in neither of these fields is any pretension made to completeness. In both it has been found difficult to observe the exact chronological order, for which reason the works under these headings have been arranged at the end alphabetically according to authors. Finally, we are to regard the critical reviews and notices of all the above categories in periodicals and newspapers published in Germany. The reviews and notices are not given in strict chronological order, but are in almost every case inserted directly below the work to which they refer. Advance notices when long are frequently given separately. During the years in which the influence of Ossian was at its height, everything has been given in the latter department that could be found, whereas in later years most reviews and short notices are omitted. As a rule the pages given in the reviews refer to those portions only that deal with Ossian.
Abbreviations have been but rarely used and never at the sacrifice of clearness and convenience. In cases where various editions come into consideration, the general rule has been observed to mention all where it seemed requisite, as e.g., in the case of translations; of less important works, only the first and the standard editions have been mentioned. It would, for example, be impossible to include an exhaustive list of the various editions of Werthers Leiden within the limits of this bibliography.