University of Virginia Library

80. Maucomble, Jean Francois Dieudonné de.

HISTOIRE / ABRÉGÉE / DE LA VILLE / DE NÎMES, / AVEC /
LA DESCRIPTION / DE SES ANTIQUITÉS. / PREMIERE
PARTIE. / . . . . . . Quod adest, memento / Componere aequus
. . . . . . Hor. Od. 23. Lib. 3. / À AMSTERDAM. / M. DCC.
LXVII.

and

HISTOIRE / . . . / SECONDE PARTIE, / CONTENANT / LA
DESCRIPTION DE SES ANTIQUITÉS. / Considére le terrible pouvoir
des années! Rome semble ensévélie / sous ses propres débris, &
n'offre aux yeux que des voutes / ébranlées & des temples ruinés. Pope,
épit. a M. Addison. / . . .

8vo. Half title, Part I (1 leaf); title page (1 leaf); text ([1]-158); table
of contents (2 leaves); half title, Part II (1 leaf); title page (1 leaf);
preface (1 leaf); [new pagination:] text ([1]-28); 9 engravings, all
folding.

One engraving is signed by C. L. Verdier as both delineator and engraver.
All the engravings are rather poor.

Jean François Dieudonné de Maucomble (1735-68) started a projected
series of city histories which was abandoned when this one (see
Plate LXXVIII) was given a bad critical reception. Nevertheless this
had a second edition in 1806.

He gives the origins of the name of Nîmes in this passage: "Nimes,
destiné à jouir de tous les honneurs des Villes célèbres, a, ainsi qu'elles,
son origine fabuleuse. Plusieurs Ecrivains, d'après Parthenius & Etienne
de Bisance, lui ont donné pour Fondateur Nemausus, un des Héraclides;
mais d'autres, avec plus de raison, ne l'etablissant qu'après la ville de
Marseille, prennent l'etymologie de ce nom Nemausus, dans le mot
celtique Nemos, qui signifie lieu consacré à la Religion" (p. (1)).

Sowerby points out that Jefferson called the "Maison Quarrée," described
on pages 11-13 of this book and illustrated in Figs. 13 and 14,
"one of the most beautiful & precious morsels of architecture left us by
antiquity" in a letter to James Madison, September 20, 1785; that he
called it "the most perfect remains of antiquity which exist on earth" in
a letter to Thomas Shippen, September 29, 1788; that he visited it in
1787; but that in his memorandum of his visit to Nîmes he inexplicably

Plate LXXVIII. From No. 80. Title page.

made no mention of the temple. And, of course, he used the temple as
precedent for the Capitol in Richmond (see No. 29).

Jefferson sold his own copy of this book to Congress. He did not
order it for the University. The library's present copy has been recently
acquired, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.

M

Sowerby 3886

*DC801.N71M3.1767