 As he worked on the libretto, Tottola "was also intrigued by the epic Celtic tales of Ossian" published in 1760 by James Macpherson, who claimed to have found poems written by an ancient bard.The published translations acquired international popularity and set off a craze for idealising and romanticizing the Scottish Highlands.Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson read the Ossian poems, Goethe included them in "The Sorrows of Young Werther", and Schubert and Mendelssohn both composed music to them.