Jefferson's fine arts library for the University of Virginia with additional notes on architectural volumes known to have been owned by Jefferson |
Jefferson Procures A Library
On the Fine Arts |
 | Jefferson's fine arts library for the University of Virginia |  |
Jefferson Procures A Library
On the Fine Arts
In the minute book of the Board of Visitors of the
University of Virginia under the date of October 15, 1825,
Thomas Jefferson recorded in his own hand the resolution
"that the board approves of the advance of 18,000. Dollars
to William Hilliard, agent for procuring the library."[1]
A
letter of May 22, 1825, from Jefferson to Hilliard, shows
that this approval was made after the money had been deposited
to Hilliard's account: "our money is deposited in
the Virginia and Farmer's banks at Richmond and our
Bursar will write by the next mail (of the 25th) to have
the sum of 18,000 D. immediately deposited to your credit
in the bank of the U. S. at Philadelphia. I have added 3000.
D. to the 15. M. originally agreed upon. Further than this
our funds do not admit us to go at present with convenience,
and moreover I confidently expect that that sum may cover
the whole purchase."[2]
This $18,000 was a portion of the $50,000 received
from the "central government"[3]
as a part compensation to
the Commonwealth of Virginia for its advances during the
War of 1812.[4]
As early as 1820 Jefferson was dealing with
budgetary matters concerning the purchase of books, for
in that year he proposed uses for hypothetical revenues of
$15,000 and $30,000 a year. For the first he included an
item "Books, say 150. vols. a year @ 10.D.—1,500" or ten
per cent of the total budget, while for the second he asks
twenty per cent of the total budget.
Before the University opened its doors in 1825, Jefferson
had spent what must have been a happy time compiling
a catalogue of books for the proposed library. Although he
had some help, notably from Bishop James Madison for
the section on theology,[6]
when he worked with the list for
architecture, gardening, painting, sculpture, and music he
was on firm ground, since he himself had owned one of the
largest such fine arts collections in the country. Even after
his library had been sold to Congress in 1815, he started
reassembling this fine arts collection to include what was
for the time a respectable number of architectural books.
Fifty books on architecture alone were sold in 1815, while
at least six and possibly five others on the same subject
were in Jefferson's library at his death.[7]
Comparable
libraries in the United States usually contained fewer such
books. Samuel McIntire had seven works on architecture
at his death in 1811.[8]
Charles Bulfinch had in his possession
about fifteen architectural books until his death in 1844.[9]
William Byrd's library at Westover showed some twenty-seven
architectural entries when it was offered for sale in
1777.[10]
The Carpenters' Co. of Philadelphia lists only
thirty-two architectural books printed before 1826.[11]
Some
book, both by gentlemen as well as by those more
actively engaged in building. Joseph Coolidge presented a
Palladio to the young University, as did James Madison, its
second Rector.[12] There is also a letter from a master carpenter
mentioning his own copy of Palladio and telling how
it differed from Jefferson's edition.[13]
In the library of the University of Virginia there is a
manuscript copy of Jefferson's want list of books. It is
labelled "President Jefferson's Catalogue of Books For the
University of Virginia Library. 1825."[14]
Written in what is
probably the hand of Nicholas Trist, it is endorsed by
Jefferson as follows: "The preceeding catalogue is that of
the books with the purchase of which Mr. Wm. Hilliard is
charged on behalf of the University of Virginia. Th: Jefferson
Rector June 3. 1825." It is arranged in the order Jefferson
had devised for his own library. This method divided
knowledge into the three faculties of Memory, Reason, and
Imagination, subtitled respectively History, Philosophy,
and Fine Arts. These are further sub-divided into a total of
forty-two headings, of which several contain books in the
fields of building and the fine arts. Such books are found
under "Hist-Civil-Ancient," "Technical Arts" (a subdivision
of History, Civil), "Architecture" (a sub-division of
Fine Arts), "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" (also
which fell outside the three main divisions.
F. W. Page, a former librarian of the University of
Virginia, described an earlier want list, evidently in Jefferson's
own hand:
We have a manuscript volume, without date, but evidently prepared
by him between the years 1820 and 1825, which he styles
A Catalogue of Books Forming the Body of a Library for the University
of Virginia, prefaced by an explanation of the views on
which it is based, and by his classification into forty-two chapters,
embracing 6,860 volumes, estimated to cost $24,076.50.
A Catalogue of Books Forming the Body of a Library for the
University of Virginia, to be afterwards enlarged by annual
additions—An explanation of the Views on which this Catalogue
has been Prepared.
1. Great standard works of established reputation, too voluminous
and too expensive for private libraries, should have a place
in every public library, for the free resort of individuals.
2. Not merely the best books in their respective branches of
science should be selected, but such also as were deemed good in
their day, and which consequently furnish a history of the advance
of the science.
3. The opera omnia of writers on various subjects are sometimes
placed in that chapter of this Catalogue to which their principal
work belongs, and sometimes referred to the Polygraphical
chapter.
4. In some cases, besides the opera omnia, a detached tract
has been also placed in its proper chapter, on account of editorial
or other merit.
5. Books in very rare languages are considered here as specimens
of language only, and are placed in the chapter of Philology,
without regard to their subject.
6. Of the classical authors, several editions are often set down
on account of some peculiar merit in each.
7. Translations are occasionally noted, on account of their
peculiar merit or of difficulties of their originals.
8. Indifferent books are sometimes inserted, because none good
are known on the same subject.
9. Nothing of mere amusement should lumber a public library.
10. The 8vo. form is generally preferred, for the convenience
with which it is handled, and the compactness and symmetry of
arrangement on the shelves of the library.[15]
11. Some chapters are defective for want of a more familiar
knowledge of their subject in the compiler, others from schisms in
the science they relate to. In Medicine, e. g., the changes of theory
which have successfully prevailed, from the age of Hippocrates to
the present day, have produced distinct schools, acting on different
hypotheses, and headed by respected names, such as Stahl, Boerhaave,
Sydenham, Hoffman, Cudden, and our own good Dr. Rush,
whose depletive and mercurial systems have formed a school, or
perhaps revived that which arose on Harvey's discovery of the circulation
of the blood. In Religion, divided as it is into multifarious
creeds, differing in their bases, and more or less in their superstructure,
such moral works have been chiefly selected as may be
approved by all, omitting what is controversial and merely sectarian.
Metaphysics have been incorporated with Ethics, and little extension
given to them. For, while some attention may be usefully
bestowed on the operations of thought, prolonged investigations of
a faculty unamenable to the test of our senses, is an expense of time
too unprofitable to be worthy of indulgence. Geology, too, has been
merged in Mineralogy, which may properly embrace what is useful
in this science, that is to say, a knowledge of the general stratification,
collection and sequence of the different species of rocks and
other mineral substances, while it takes no cognisance of theories
for the self-generation of the universe, or the particular revolutions
of our own globe by the agency of water, fire, or other agent,
subordinate to the fiat of the Creator.[16]
The manuscript described by Page has disappeared,
presumably as a result of the disastrous library fire of
1895,[17]
but Jefferson's signed endorsement of the existing
manuscript catalogue and his mentioning it in a letter of
June 3, 1825 to Hilliard ("The copying of our Catalogue
closeness to his original selections for the library of the new
University. Bruce states that "All the volumes [in Jefferson's
catalogue] descriptive of architecture, sculpture, painting,
and music were written in Italian."[19] That this was incorrect
is seen when one examines the list itself or considers
this passage in a letter from Jefferson to Hilliard dated November
4, 1825: ". . . in foreign books a strong regard to
the edition named except where a newer and obviously
better has been published, and a discretionary latitude as
to recent editions of English books, and in no case a translation
unless expressly specified. In general I wrote the title
in the language described, but where I did not understand
the language, I was not always exact in doing that, but the
face of the catalogue shows that originals in all languages
are what we want."[20] As we have seen, Jefferson also preferred
the octavo size,[21] but in the field of the fine arts a
great variety of sizes had to be purchased.
The fine arts list from the existing manuscript catalogue
follows. The initials to the left of the titles refer to
the country (A for America, F for France, G for Germany.
England appears as L for London) in which the books could
best be purchased; the first column of figures to the right
indicates the number of volumes; and the second column of
figures to the right indicates the format (folio, octavo,
quarto, duodecimo). Sometimes the date and the place of
imprint are also included. The bracketed numbers refer to
the desiderata list beginning on page 7. A bracketed asterisk
indicates that the University now owns the volume and that
it is listed in the Appendix.
| L | Visconti on the Elgin Marbles | [102] | ||
| L | Montfaucon's antiquities | [64] | 9 | f |
| L | Clarke's Greek marbles at Cambridge | [18] | 4 | 8 |
| L | Potter's antiquities of Greece by Dunbar |
[*] | 2 | 8 |
| A | Kennet's Basil Roman Antiquities | [*] | 1 | 8 |
| A | Adams's Roman antiquities | [*] | 1 | 8 |
| L | The handmaid of the arts | [*Dossie] | 2 | 8 | 1764 |
| L | Cutbush's artist's manual | [*] | 2 | 8 | |
| L | The Repertory of arts and Manufactures | [83] | 15 | 8 | |
| L | Charnock's hist. of Marine architecture | [*] | 3 | 4 | |
| L | Papers on naval architecture | [22] | 2 | 8 | London |
| L | Experiments of the Society of Naval architecture |
[95] | 4 | ||
| A | Rumford's essays | [*] | 3 | 8 | 1802 |
| F | Rondelet l'art de batir | [85] | |||
| L | Tregold's carpentry | [98] | 4 | ||
| L | Nicholson's carpenter's new guide | [66] | 4 | ||
| L | Nicholson's Carpenter's and joiner's assistant |
[65] | 4 | 1797 | |
| L | Barlow on the strength of timber | [4] | 1 | 8 | |
| F | Etienne d'un ciment impénétrable à l'eau |
[29] | 1 | 8 | |
| F | De la Faye sur la chaux des Romains | [48] | 1 | 8 |
| A | Gibson's Surveying | [*] | 8 |
| F | Milizia. Principj di Architettura civile dal Cipriani |
[61] | 3 | 8 | Bassano 1813 |
| [See footnote [22] ] | |||||
| L | The Earl of Aberdeen on Grecian Architecture |
[1] |
| L | The ruins of Palmyra | [*Wood] | 1 | f | |
| L | The ruins of Balbec by Wood & Dawkins |
[*] | 1 | f | |
| L | The ruins of Athens by Le Roy | [52] | 1 | f | |
| L | The ruins of Athens by Stuart & Revett |
[*] | 4 | f | |
| L | The ruins of Paestum | [*Major] | 1 | ? | Lond. 1768 |
| L | Adam's account of Dioclesian's palace |
[*] | 1 | f | |
| F | Antichita di Roma del Scamozzi | [89] | 1 | f | |
| F | Ritratto di Roma antiqua | [86] | 1 | 12 | |
| F | Ritratto di Roma Moderna | [87] | 1 | 8 | Roma 1652 |
| F | Roma illustrata dal Donati | [26] | 1 | 4 | |
| F | Vestigia e rarita di Roma. del Ficorone |
[31] | 1 | 4 | |
| F | Vedute di Roma antica et moderna del Piranesi |
[78] | 1 | f | |
| F | Edifices anciennes de Rome par Desgodetz. Paris 1779 |
[25] | 2 | f | 1795 |
| L | Antiquities of Herculaneum | [*Marechal] | 7 | 8 | |
| F | Clerissaut monumens de Nismes | [*] | 1 | f | |
| L | Castell's villas of the antients | [14] | 1 | f | |
| F | Lubersac sur les monumens publics | [54] | 1 | f | |
| F | Monumens de Louis XV par Patte | [72] | 1 | f | |
| F | Discours sur les monumens publics par Kersaint |
[20] | 1 | 4 | |
| F | Krafft et Ransonette. plans des maisons de Paris |
[47] | 1 | f | |
| F | Becker. Plans d'architecture | [7] | 1 | f | |
| G | Meinert. Schone land baukunst. Ideas of buildings |
[59] | 1 | 4 | Leips. 1798 |
| G | Portfeuille des artistes, ou dessins de chateaux etc. |
[81] | 1 | 4 | Leips. 1800 |
| F | Recueil et parallele des edifices anciens et moderns de tout genre pr. I. N. L. Durand |
[27] | |||
| F | Pompeiana | [33] | |||
| L | Mitchell's buildgs. in Engl. & Scotl. & Gothic architecture |
[62] | 1 | f | |
| F | Vitruvius. glossaries Germ. Ital. Gall. Angl. iconibus Rode |
[105] | 1 | f | Berol 1800 |
| F | L'architecture de Vitruve par Perrault | [104] | 1 | f | Paris 1684 |
| F | Perrault. Cinq ordonnances de colonnes |
[73] | 1 | f | Par. 1683 |
| F | Architecture de Le Clerc | [*] | 1 | 4 |
| F | Bibliotheque d'architecture de Iombert. viz Vignola, Palladio, Scamozzi, Errard-& Cambray |
[42] | 4 | 8 | Par. 1766 |
| L | Ware's complete body of Architecture | [106] | 1 | f | |
| L | Inigo Jones & Ld Burlington's designs by Kent |
[*] | 1 | f | 1770 |
| L | Gibbs' designs in architecture | [*] | 1 | f | 1728 |
| L | Gibb's rules for drawing in Architecture | [34] | 1 | f | 1732 |
| F | De Lorme Invention pour batir les couvertures courbes |
[24] | 1 | f | |
| [See footnote [23] ] | |||||
| L | Nicholson's architecture | [67] | 3 | 8 | |
| L | Chambers's views of the gardens etc. of Kew |
[17] | 1 | f | 1763 |
| L | Chambers's Chinese designs | [16] | 1 | f | 1757 |
| L | Kirby's Perspective of architecture | [46] | 2 | f | 1761 |
| L | Builder's Dictionary | [*] | 2 | 8 | 1734 |
| L | Smeaton's narrative of Eddystone lighthouse |
[94] | 1 | f |
| F | D'Hancarville sur l'origine et progress des arts de la Grece |
[38] | 3 | 4 | Lond 1785 |
| L | Whateley's observations on modern gardening |
[108] | 1 | 8 | |
| L | Heely on the gardens of Hagley | [39] | 2 | 12 | |
| L | Description of Stowe | [* & 97] | 1 | 8 | |
| F | Storia delle arti del disegno del Winkelman. Carlo Fea |
[*] | 3 | 4 | Rom. 1783 |
| F | Vite de Pittori, Scuttori, e Architetti del Vassari |
[99] | 3 | 4 | Bol. 1648 |
| L | Pilkington's dict. of Painters by Fuseli |
[76] | 1 | 4 | Lond. 1810 |
| F | Felibien. vies des peintres et des architectes |
[*] | 5 | 12 | |
| L | Da Vinci on painting | [*Leonardo] | 1 | 8 | |
| L | Hogarth's analysis of beauty & Grose's Caricatures |
[*] | 1 | 8 | |
| F | Galerie des antiques a Paris, par le Grand |
[*] | 1 | 8 |
| F | Annales du musee et des beaux arts par Landon |
[*] | 20 | 8 | Par. 1801 |
| F | Le Manuel du Museum Francais | [*Toulongeon] | 3 | 8 | |
| L | Spence's Polymetis | [*] | 1 | f | 1747 |
| F | Basan. Dict. des Graveurs anciens et modernes |
[6] | 3 | 12 | Par. 1767 |
| F | Gemme antiche figurante. de la Chaussée |
[5] | 1 | 4 | |
| F | Signa et Statua Antiqua. Perrier | [75] | 1 | f | |
| F | Antiquites d'Herculaneum. par Piroli & Piranesi |
[*] | 6 | 4 | |
| F | Arteaga Rivolusioni del Teatro musicale Italiano |
[3] | 3 | 8 | |
| L | Burney's present state of music in Italy |
[*] | 1 | 8 | |
| L | Burney's present state of music in Germany |
[*] | 2 | 8 |
| Encyclopedia methodique de Pancoucke, say about 39 select dictionaries to wit: the dictionaries of ...... |
|
| Antiquities | |
| Architecture | |
| Art Aratoire & Jardinage | |
| Arts et Metiers | |
| Beaux Arts | |
| Musique | [28] |
The list of fine arts books ordered by Jefferson for the
University consisted, then, of eighty-some titles and nearly
two hundred volumes. A dozen of the volumes were duodecimo,
eighty-some were octavo, about fifty were quarto,
forty-some folio, and a few did not have their sizes indicated.
We have two ways of saying which of the books ordered
by Jefferson were actually acquired in Jefferson's lifetime:
one source is a manuscript catalogue of the library compiled
even before the Hilliard list was completed, and the other
is a printed catalogue that was to appear within two years
after Jefferson's death.
The slight manuscript list, "Catalogue of the Library
of the University of Virginia" by John V. Kean, was dated
after the University had opened its doors and before any
books recommended by the faculty could have been added
to the collection. It provides eleven relevant titles:
| Smeaton's Eddystone lighthouse. grand format. |
[94] |
| Cresswell's Linear Perspective. 8vo. | [*] |
| Atwood on Arches. 4to. | [*] |
| Palladio's Architecture by Leoni 2v. fol. (at Monticello) |
[*] |
| Palladio dal Cipriani P 4to. | [70] |
| Kelsal's Phantasm of an University. 4to. fol |
[44] |
| Aldrick's Architecture by Smith. 8vo. | [*] |
| Borghini il reposo 3v. 8vo. | [9] |
| Baldinuci opere 14 v. 8vo. Milano | [*] |
| Date vite dei Pittori. 8vo. | [23] |
| Benvenuto Cellini Vita è notizie sull arte dal Cor 3 v. 8vo. |
[15] |
By 1828 the printed catalogue of the University Library,[24]
could include fifty-nine titles composed of one hundred
and forty-four volumes on the fine arts, though only
thirty-three of these titles and ninety-three of the volumes
appeared in the order list sent to Hilliard. Of these niney-three,
listed below, four volumes were duodecimo, forty-one
octavo, thirty-three quarto, and fifteen folio. The following
list, with bracketed references to the present identifications,
Jefferson as they appeared in the 1828 Catalogue:
| Kennets Roman Antiquities, Philadelphia, 1822 |
[*] | 1 | 8 |
| Potter's Antiquities of Greece, Edinburgh, 1824 |
[*] | 2 | 8 |
| Wheatley on Modern Gardening, London 1777 |
[108] | 1 | 8 |
| Aberdeen, Inquiry into Greecian Architecture, London, 1822 |
[1] | 1 | 12 |
| Annals of the Museum, and of the School of Fine Arts, Fr. Paris |
[*Landon] | 17 | 8 |
| Antiquities of Herculaneum, Engraved by Paroli, and published by F. & P. Piranesi, Fr. Paris, 1804 |
[79] | 6 | 4 |
| Arteaga, on Music, Italian Bologna, 1783 |
[3] | 2 | 8 |
| Basan's Dictionary of Engravers, Fr. Paris, 1767 |
[6] | 3 | 12 |
| Chamber's Plans &c. of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew, London, 1763 |
[17] | 1 | f |
| Clarke, on the Greek Marbles, Cambridge, 1809 |
[18] | 1 | 4 |
| Desgotetz, Antique Edifices of Rome, Fr. Paris, 1729 |
[25] | 1 | f |
| Durand, collection and comparison of Ancient and Modern Edifices of all kinds, Fr. Paris, 1801 |
[27] | 1 | f |
| Felibien, Discourses on the Lives and Works of the most excellent Antient and Modern Painters, French, Trees, 1725 |
[*] | 6 | 8 |
| Gibb's Architecture, London, 1728 | [*] | 1 | f |
| Handmaid to the Arts, London, 1764 | [*Dossie] | 2 | 8 |
| Jones (Inigo,) Designs | [*] | 1 | 4 |
| Le Clerc, Treatise on Architecture, Fr. Paris, 1714 |
[*] | 2 | 4 |
| Le Grand, Galleries of Antiquities, Paris, 1803 |
[*] | 1 | 8 |
| Le Roy, Antiquities of Greece, Paris, 1758 |
[52] | 1 | f |
| Lubersac, Discourse on Public Monuments, French, Paris, 1775 |
[54] | 1 | f |
| Major, (Thomas) the Ruins of Paestum, Fr. London, 1768 |
[*] | 1 | f |
| Manual of the French Museum. Fr. Paris, 1802 |
[*Toulongeon] | 5 | 8 |
| Patte. Monuments of Louis XV. Fr. Paris, 1765 |
[72] | 1 | f |
| Perrault, See Vitruvius | |||
| Perrault, on the five kinds of Columns, Fr. Paris, 1683 |
[73] | 1 | f |
| Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters, London, 1824 |
[77] | 2 | 8 |
| Seely, description of the House and Gardens of the Marquess of Buckingham |
[*Stowe] | 1 | 4 |
| Smeaton, Narrative of the Building, and a description of the construction of Edystone Lighthouse, Lond. 1813 |
[94] | 1 | f |
| Spence's Polymetis, London, 1813 | [*] | 1 | f |
| Visconti, on the Elgin Marbles, London, 1816 |
[102] | 1 | 8 |
| Vitruvius, Architecture, by Perrault, Fr. Paris, 1684 |
[104] | 1 | f |
| Wood, Ruins of Balbec, London, 1757 | [*] | 1 | f |
| Wood, Ruins of Palmyra, London, 1753 | [*] | 1 | f |
| Encyclopaedia | |||
| Methodical, Fr. Paris, 1787 to 1816, comprising |
|||
| Antiquities comprising | 5 | 4 | |
| Antiquities Plates comprising | 2 | 4 | |
| Architecture comprising | 2 | 4 | |
| Art of Husbandry &c. comprising | 1 | 4 | |
| Art of Husbandry Plates comprising | 1 | 4 | |
| Arts & Mechanical Trades comprising | 8 | 4 | |
| Fine Arts, comprising | 2 | 4 | |
| Fine Arts, Plates comprising | 1 | 4 | |
| Music, comprising | [28] | 2 | 4 |
| Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty, and Plates, London, 1776 |
[*] | 1 | 8 |
Only half a dozen of these titles definitely survived the
1895 fire in the Library, and some of these survived only in
part, but under the half dozen titles are thirty some volumes.
Many if not all of the books on the manuscript want
list were already known to Jefferson. His own library, either
before or after the sale to the Library of Congress, or both,
contained at least thirty-seven of the architectural titles that
also appeared in the catalogue sent to Hilliard,[25]
and these
have frequently helped to identify the editions Jefferson
must have had in mind for the University.
To reconstruct the fine arts library as it was proposed
in the catalogue sent to Hilliard is thus not as difficult a
task as it first appeared. Such a reconstruction was begun
by the late Mr. E. S. Campbell, Chairman of the School of
Art and Architecture from 1927 until his death in 1950.
Mr. Campbell had purchased a dozen titles as they became
available and as funds permitted. Since his death, another
dozen items have been acquired. Thus, with titles surviving
from Jefferson's original purchase and with replacements,
the University of Virginia is today already numerically in
as strong a position as it was in 1828 toward establishing the
collection in the fine arts that Jefferson proposed, but it
still lacks many titles of the ones originally ordered.
When the seventy titles (more or less) needed to complete
Jefferson's original order for the University are added
to the collection, it will be a much smaller step to complete
a reconstruction of Jefferson's personal architectural library.
Of the books listed by Kimball[26]
the library already owns a
few, including two of the Palladios. In addition, the library
also has a copy of a Palladio not listed by Kimball,
the Leoni edition of 1721, which Jefferson used in building
used by Jefferson was his personal property.[28] When Miss
Sowerby completes her excellent work on Jefferson's books,
it will be easier to complete a reconstruction of the entire
section on the fine arts in the personal library, an important
step since Jefferson clearly had in mind from time to time
that these books were to form a posthumous supplement to
the University's holdings. Meanwhile, however, there are
still thirty-some architectural books known to be lacking
when the titles in the personal library are used as a source.
These titles have, therefore, been added to the list of desiderata.[29]
One fact needs to be emphasized here. The present
list prepared by Jefferson for the University, and they have
been supplemented by architectural[30] books from Jefferson's
private libraries. The anomalous position of music in this
treatment will be immediately apparent. The architectural
books were strongly represented in the public collection,
less strongly in the private one. The reverse was true of the
music books. The listing of Jefferson's musical library
interests, therefore, awaits a different and separate study, as
does the listing of his books on painting, sculpture, and the
fine arts generally.
When it is remembered, however, that Jefferson's
architectural achievements are second only to his political
contributions to the history of the United States, the importance
of the group of books dealt with here can be appreciated.
Without these books it is impossible to understand
fully either Jefferson's philosophy of architecture or
his sources for the visual forms with which he gave objective
life to that philosophy.
Constance E Thurlow & Francis L Berkeley, Jr., The Jefferson Papers of the
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., 1950, Item 1517.
Elizabeth Cometti, Jefferson's Ideas on a University Library, Charlottesville,
Va., 1950, p 22. Some of Jefferson's abbreviations have been expanded in quotations
from this and other sources.
Virginia Gazette, December 19, 1777; reprinted in The Writings of Colonel
William Byrd, edited by John Spencer Bassett, N.Y., 1901; Reprinted in Kimball,
Thomas Jefferson, Architect, op cit.
Carpenter's Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, Finding List
of the Library, Philadelphia, 1894.
Thurlow & Berkeley, Jefferson Papers, op cit., Item 1703: James Oldham
to Thomas Jefferson, June 21, 1819: "J. Oldham sends Mr. Jefferson the Draughts
of the window frames for his examination. The Dorick of Diocletions baths,
Chambray, is not in the Book of Palladio which I have, and I must aske the
faver of Mr. Jefferson to lone me the book to lay down my cornice and I will
immediately return it safe. . ." See also Items 1733 and 1863, in one of which
Jefferson specified certain entablatures by the numbers of specific plates in his
copy of Palladio.
Practically the same rule is in Jefferson's letter to Hilliard of September 16,
1825. See Cometti, Jefferson's Ideas on a University Library, op cit., p 34.
F. W. Page, "Our Library," dated Sept. 10, 1895, in Alumni Bulletin of the
University of Virginia, Vol 2, No 3, November 1895, p.79.
A Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
1828; 1945 facsimile edition of W. H. Peden, p.2.
Thurlow & Berkeley, Jefferson Papers, op cit., Item 2201: Jefferson to Joseph
Coolidge, Oct. 24, 1824: "I ought sooner to have thanked you for the valuable
work of Milizia, on Architecture. searching, as he does, for the sources and
prototypes of our ideas of beauty in that fine art, he appears to have elicited
them with more correctness than any author I have read, and his work, as a
text book, furnishes excellent matter for a course of lectures on the subject,
which I shall hope to have introduced into our institution."
Thurlow & Berkeley, Jefferson Papers, op cit., Item 2201: Jefferson to Gen.
Joseph Smith (?), June 21, 1825: "I was much indebted to you for the kind loan
of De Lorme's Architecture. It is now packed up in readiness to be returned. It
is one of those of the Catalogue given to Mr. Hilliard, and which he would
probably be very willing to take at a reasonable price."
A Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia. Arranged Alphabetically
under different heads, with the number and size of the volumes of
each work, and its edition specified. Also, A Notice of such donations of books
as have been made to the University. Published by Gilmer, Davis, & Co., Charlottesville,
Va., 1828. 114 p.
Thurlow & Berkeley, Jefferson Papers, op cit., Item 1863: Specifications for
capitals in which Jefferson refers to specific plates in this edition of Palladio.
John V. Kean, Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia, a
manuscript dated May 16, 1825, lists a Leoni edition of Palladio and adds the
marginal note: "(at Monticello)". Thus the book appears to have been the
property of the University on this date, but whether it had been purchased by
the University or given to the University by Jefferson is uncertain.
Which titles have been so supplied will be apparent from the annotations
to the lists themselves A word on the sources of information concerning Jefferson's
personal libraries, however, is in order. Kimball, Thomas Jefferson, Architect,
op cit., p 90-101, was the pioneer effort at listing the architectural books in
all of Jefferson's private libraries. Some additions and a few corrections are made
here to Kimball's listings. Other than manuscript lists, there were formerly
available only three important printed sources of information on the library
Jefferson sold to Congress: (1) Catalogue of the Library of the United States,
Washington, 1815. (2) Catalogue of the Library of Congress, Washington, 1830.
(3) Catalogue of the Library of Congress, in the Capitol of the United States of
America, Washington, 1840. That these need to be used with caution may be
evidenced by a single example. The 1840 Catalogue assigned to Jefferson's library
the Congressional copy of Claude Leopold Genneté's Nouvelle Construction de
Chiminées, Liege, 1760, which apparently, however, never did belong to Jefferson.
Fortunately, the work of E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of
Thomas Jefferson, Washington, 1952- (four of the five volumes have been
published as the present list goes to press), is in process of superceding the earlier
and less reliable printed catalogues For the last of Jefferson's libraries, no such
similar study exists, and recourse still has to be made to the sale catalogue:
Catalogue. President Jefferson's Library . . . By Nathaniel P. Poor . . . Washington,
1829, 14 p. A facsimile of this was issued by the Clements Library in 1944
without annotation.
Kimball's implicit definition of an architectural book has in general been
followed in the present listing (thus the omission from the present lists, for
example, of books in the private library on gems), but the boundary line between
an architectural book and one on engineering or mathematics is sometimes
shadowy. Books on surveying have generally been included, but otherwise the
books on applied mathematics have generally been excluded. Books on shipbuilding
have been omitted, with two exceptions which have been included
arbitrarily as a concession to titles containing the word "Architecture." Books on
dykes, bridges, and fortifications have been omitted as being more strictly of an
engineering nature The selection of architecturally important books from Jefferson's
headings of "Geography," "History," and the like, has been peculiarly
difficult Not many additions, however, will in the future be made in the field
of Jefferson's interests in Roman antiquities In a slightly different category,
Maucomble's Histoire Abrégée de la Ville de Nîmes obviously needed to be
added to former lists, and has been added here, but perhaps others will want to
make further additions to the northern European group In American architecture,
only William Birch's City of Philadelphia has been added to correct a
formerly conspicuous omission, and it seems doubtful that much else could conceivably
be added in this field without embracing the problem of isolated plates
in otherwise largely irrelevant books.
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