Jefferson's fine arts library :: :: University of Virginia Library

POLYMETIS: / OR, / An Enquiry concerning the / AGREEMENT
/ Between the WORKS of the / ROMAN POETS, / And the REMAINS
of the / ANTIENT ARTISTS. / BEING / An Attempt to
illustrate them mutually from / one another. / IN TEN BOOKS. / By
the Revd. Mr. Spence. / Omnes artes, quae ad humanitatem pertinent,
habent quoddam commune vinculum; / & quasi cognatione quâdam inter
se continentur. Cicero; pro Arch. / The Verse and Sculpture bore an
equal part; / And Art reflected images to Art. / Pope, of Poetry and
Statuary. / - Each from each contract new strength and light. / Id. of
Poetry and Painting. / LONDON: / Printed for R. Dodsley; at Tully'sHead,
Pall-Mall. / M.DCC.XLVII.

Folio. Title page ([i]); preface (iii-v); list of subscribers (vii-xii); text,
with 41 engraved plates, of which 2 are folding and 2 double, inserted
([1]-327); description of plates ([329]-36); index of figures ([337]40);
classical index ([341]-51); index (353-61); binder's directions and
errata ([362]).

The engraver for this book was Louis-Phillipe Boitard (d. after 1770),
who worked in both France and England. His engravings for the
Polymetis formed his most considerable work.

Joseph Spence (1699-1768) was born in Hampshire, the son of a
rector. He was educated at Eton, Winchester, Magdalen Hall, Oxford,
and New College, Oxford. He received his B.A. in either 1723 or 1724,
took holy orders in 1724, and was given his M.A. in 1727. He was professor

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of poetry from 1728 to 1738 and was appointed Regius professor
of modern history in 1742. He traveled abroad as companion to several
noblemen. Dr. Johnson said of him that "his learning was not very
great, and his mind not very powerful; his criticism, however, was commonly
just; what he thought, he thought rightly, and his remarks were
recommended by coolness and candour" (DNB).

He explains his interest in and the origin of his work by saying:

The following work is the result of two very different scenes of life, in
which I have happened to be engaged. The one, was my having been Professor
of Poetry, in the University of Oxford, for ten years; and the other, my being
abroad, for above half that space of time. The former obliged me to deal in
Poetical Criticism; as the latter, (and particularly the considerable stay that
I made, both at Florence, and at Rome,) led me naturally enough into some
observation and love for the fine remains of the antient artists. As these two
periods of my life happened partly to coincide, this put me on the thoughts of
joining these studies together: and in doing this indeed I found very little
difficulty; for, (as Cicero says in the motto to my book,) there is a natural
connexion between all the polite arts: and consequently, they may rather
seem to meet one another, than to have been brought together by any contrivance.
[P. iii]

My confining myself to the Roman writers only, or such of the Greeks
as were quite Romanized; has been of great use to me, toward making the
whole work the less perplexed. My chief stock was laid in from all the Roman
poets, quite from Ennius down to Juvenal; and from several of their prosewriters,
from Varro down to Macrobius. Had I gone lower, the authorities
would have grown still weaker and weaker; and my subject would have been
the more liable to have been confused. [P. v]

The book is cast in the form of dialogues between Polymetis, a fictitious
person, and his guests who have retired to a villa. This edition
is the first, but by 1777 it was in a fourth edition. As late as 1802 it was
issued in an abridged form.

Jefferson knew this book as early as 1771, for he made a notation
that year in a want list of works of art: "Diana Venetrix (see Spence's
Polymetis)" (Kimball, fig. 79). Spence illustrates the Diana Venatrix
in Plate XIII, Fig. IV (see Plate CXXV), and describes it as "DIANA
VENATRIX: an Onyx; in Senator Buonaroti's collection, at Florence"
(p. 330). He further says:

Of all the various characters of this goddess, there is no one more
known, than that of her presiding over woods; and delighting in hunting. The
Diana Venatrix, or goddess of the chace, is frequently represented as running
on, and with her vest as flying back with the wind; notwithstanding its being
shortened, and girt about her, for expedition. She is tall of stature; and her

Plate CXXV. From No. 116. Diana Venatrix (Pl. XIII, Fig. IV).

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face, tho' so very handsome, is something manly. Her legs are bare; very well
shaped, and very strong. Her feet are sometimes bare too; and sometimes
adorned with a sort of buskin, which was worn by the huntresses of old. She
often has her quiver on her shoulder; and sometimes holds a javelin, but more
usually her bow, in her right hand. It is thus she makes her appearance in
several of her statues; and it is thus the Roman poets describe her: particularly,
in the epithets they give this goddess; in the use of which they are so
happy, that they often bring the idea of whole figures of her into your mind,
by one single word.

I believe there is scarce any one of all the little circumstances I have
mentioned, which has escaped the poets. Her javelin and bow are as frequent
in them, as in the antiques which represent her. Ovid takes notice of the shape
of her leg; and Virgil is so good as to inform us, even what color her buskins
were of.

The statues of Diana were very frequent in woods. She was represented
there, all the different ways they could think of. Sometimes, as hunting; sometimes,
as bathing; and sometimes, as resting herself after her fatigue. Statius
gives us a very pretty description of the latter; which I should be very glad to
see well executed in marble, or colours. [P. 100]

Spence uses quotations from Ovid, Virgil, and Statius to annotate this
passage.

The copy of Polymetis that Jefferson sold to Congress was this edition.
The library's present copy is the one ordered by Jefferson in the
section on "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" of the want list. The
1828 Catalogue entry indicating that the one Hilliard sent was an 1813
edition is an error, brought about by an accidental transfer of imprint
from the preceding item.

U. Va.

*N5613.S7.1747

Sowerby 4230