This is a collection of the major contemporary contributions to the Rowley controversy - all of them extremely rare.
The revival of interest in medieval life and literature during the 18th century led to a fanatical search for antiquarian literary treasures - forgers such as James Macpherson, William Henry Ireland and Thomas Chatterton provided them to their willing and eager patrons. Chatterton wrote on scraps of old parchment and posed it as the work of Thomas Rowley and others.The publication of Thomas Tyrwhitt's first collection of Rowley poems in 1777 gave rise to a heated literary controversy regarding their authenticity. This is a collection of the major contemporary contributions to this controversy - all of them extremely rare.
First Collected Edition of the Rowley Poems [ 1777]
Thomas Chatterton
Edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt 336pp
The Life of Thomas Chatterton with Criticisms on his Genius and Writings and
a concise View of the Controversy concerning Rowley's Poems [ 1789]
George Gregory 272pp
The Life of Thomas Chatterton including his unpublished Poems and
Correspondence [ 1837]
John Dix 346pp
Cursory Observations on the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley, a Priest of
the Fifteenth Century [ 1782]
Edmund Malone 66pp
An Essay on the Evidence, External and Internal, relating to the Poems
attributed to Thomas Rowley [ 1783]
Thomas James Mathias 130pp
A Vindication of the Appendix to the Poems, called Rowley's, in reply to the
Answers of the Dean of Exeter, Jacob Bryant [ 1782]
Thomas Tyrwhitt 232pp
An Enquiry into the Authenicity of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley
[ 1782]
Thomas Warton 128pp
A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton[ 1799]
Horace Walpole 58pp
