Positive reconstruction · reader-scoped, not an inferred-absence lacuna
This reconstruction covers the readable fraction of Thomas Jefferson's formation -- attested reading and writing only, not the whole of a life.
Thomas Jefferson and Ossian's Poems
Thomas Jefferson's attested relationship to Ossian's Poems.
Thomas Jefferson is attested as having read this work by James Macpherson.
Evidence ledger
- First-person reading testimony (CALIBRATION CASE. First-person ongoing-reading claim on a work titled and attributed in-passage: 'the elegant collection, arrangement, and translation of Ossian's poems' by 'Mr. James McPherson'; 'These pieces have been and will... continue to be to me the sources of daily and exalted pleasures... Merely for the pleasure of reading his works, I am become desirous of learning the language in which he sung.' The reading claim is habitual/present rather than a single dated event. No catalogue match (no Ossian/Macpherson/Fingal entry), so proposed as a new Work.). Self-report reliability discount 0.75: Flattery-context discount is substantial: TJ writes to the translator's kinsman (Charles McPherson) soliciting a favor, and the praise is rhetorically inflated ('the greatest poet that has ever existed'). But specific, costly engagement strengthens: the reading is habitual ('sources of DAILY and exalted pleasures'), and he backs it by asking for the Gaelic originals, offering to LEARN the language, and commissioning a grammar, dictionary and catalogue - behavior that presupposes genuine sustained reading. Net 0.75.