Irish Minstrelsy or Bardic Remains of Ireland. With English Poetical Translations. Collected and Edited With Notes and Illustrations. In Two Volumes. London: Joseph Robins, 1831. Frontispiece Portrait. Pp (1) lxxx, 376; (2) 435. Texts are in Gaelic and English. Publisher’s smooth cloth boards, paper title labels to spines. Labels worn, contents in near fine condition throughout.

James Hardiman (1782-1855), was born in Westport, Co. Mayo. His Irish Minstrelsy, or Bardic Remains of Ireland is an anthology of Irish poetry from all periods, the contents ranging from relics attributed to mythological figures such as Tórna Éigeas to the contemporary Gaelic poet Antoine Raiftearaí, whom he knew. The object of the work was to attest the antiquity of Irish poetry and to show that it possessed a dignity equal to the classical literatures of Greece and Rome. In Irish Minstrelsy, Hardiman enlisted a team of assistants including Thomas Furlong, John D’Alton, Edward Lawson, Henry Grattan Curran, and William Hamilton Drummond to render his prose translations in verse.