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Melchiorre Cesarotti (1730-1808) produces a blank verse translation into Italian
of the rhythmic prose of James Macpherson's Ossian.
On the basis of the numerous
amendments to be found in the three subsequent Italian editions of the Ossian
(Padova 1763, Padova 1772, and Pisa, 1801), it can never be ascertained which English
editions serve as source text for Cesarotti's translations and whether
Italian variations could be led back to similar variations in the the English
texts, or whether they were rather the independent and unwarranted work of the
Italian translator.
Our first successful search enables us to clarify the nature
of Cesarotti's role, somewhere between that of a translator and of a deft
stylist looking for a new language for Italy's infant Romanticism.
The first
part of this dissertation is explanatory, critical and historical, it is
followed by thorough appendixes, listing variants and cross-references leading
back to the English original texts.
The whole makes up a philological apparatus
which will be put to use in the forthcoming publication of the Italian and
English Ossianic texts, side by side.
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