Ossian’s poems and the creation of the culture of Constitutionalism: the translation of Alonso Ortiz in context

Abstract

The first translation into Spanish of James Macpherson's Ossian Works published in 1788 by José Alonso de Ortiz has been historiographically treated as secondary, although it plays an important role in the political history of culture at the end of the 18th century. Starting with an approach to the original text and restoring it to the specific context of the Scottish Enlightenment in which it acquires meaning and attains notable validity with a powerful political message, its translation into Spanish is analyzed, attempting to deploy a double contextualization task: on the one hand, that of the intellectual itinerary of the translator himself, with special mention of the series of translations surrounding this initiative, including a work that never saw the light of day due to its political texture, the Histoire des Révolutions d'Angleterre by Pierre-Joseph d' Orléans, and others of greater scope, with special mention of his translation of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, the first complete translation into Spanish; and on the other hand, that of contextualizing Ossian's translation in the coordinates of the debate that is going through the gestation of the culture of constitutionalism in the Spanish-speaking world. On the basis of these operations, conclusions are drawn in which it is of interest to situate the way in which the conception and understanding of the nation in the Hispanic case may have been literary rather than political.