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I. Printed Books and Pamphlets

A. With Virginia as Subject and/or Virginians as Authors:

In his Notes on the State of Virginia Jefferson emphasizes the importance of the study of the past:

History, by apprizing [young men] of the past, will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every guise it may assume, and knowing it, to defeat its views (L&B, II, 207).
In many other places he emphasizes History's significance.[16] It is one of the major classifications for his library, as noted above. Under it he had subdivisions of Civil and Natural; under Civil, Civil Proper and Ecclesiastical; under Civil Proper, Ancient and Modern; under Modern, Foreign, British, and American. Under American History, Sowerby gives ninety-two items (not counting newspapers, which have an informal subclass of their own). Of these only fifteen, including a dozen books, two pamphlets, and a manuscript volume are strictly Virginiana. But this is more by far than he has on any other state, and among the books are John Smith's Generall Historie (1632), Keith's History of the British Plantations in America. . . Part I Containing the History of Virginia (1738), William Stith's The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia [1747], John Daly Burk's History of Virginia (1804, 1805), William Robertson's History of America, Books IX and X (1799), and Robert Beverley's Histoire de la Virginie (1707, the French edition), all today, with the exception of Robertson, valuable items. Along with them are several George Washington items,

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including the Journal (1754), Official Letters to the American Congress (1795), Marshall's Life (1804, 1805, 1807; Jefferson was an original subscriber), Weems' Life (1808), and Ramsay's Life (1807). In addition there are Henry Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department (1812) and interesting pamphlets by Edmund Jennings and Lewis Littlepage.

Before he died in 1826 Jefferson was able to replace some of these items which had gone to Congress. Again he had Keith's History (the same 1738 edition), Marshall's Washington, and several other Washington items including the Letters. He added the new Girardin supplement to John Daly Burk's History. William Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry (1817) and Lee's Memoirs of R. H. Lee (1825), along with a number of historical pamphlets incompletely identified in the 1829 sales list.

Under the second division of History, Natural, Jefferson included Physics, Natural History Proper, and Occupations of Men. Under Physics were Natural Philosophy, Agriculture, Chemistry, Surgery, and Medicine. Under the last five subheadings Jefferson seems not to have done much deliberate collecting, although his letters show considerable interest in most of the topics discussed. Most of the items which might be designated as Virginiana are so because their authors were Virginians. Medical theses and essays from Edinburgh to Philadelphia by James McClurg, Theodorick Bland, William Tazewell, William Stokes, and Thomas and James Ewell discuss a variety of topics from yellow fever to the human bile and "asphyxia." Then here is John Rouelle's Complete Treatise on the Mineral Waters of Virginia (1792). Other books and pamphlets on agriculture (in this case both subject and author were frequently Virginian) were probably closer to Jefferson's personal interests. Here one finds John A. Binns' Treatise on Practical Farming (1803), Jacquelin Ambler's Treatise on the Culture of Lucerne (1800?), G. W. P. Custis' Address . . . on the Importance of Encouraging Agriculture and Domestic Manufactures (1808), John Randolph's Treatise on Gardening (1793), and John Taylor's famous Arator (1813).

Under Natural History Proper appear other Virginians' books or pamphlets on surgery, the laws and property of matter, and The Noble and Useful Animal the Horse (Petersburg, 1811). Quite valuable among the botanical books is the Gronovius-Clayton Flora Virginica (1762), though it is not a first edition. And under the Technical Arts (i.e., "The Occupations of Men") there is Quesnay de Beaurepaire's interesting Memoire (1788) concerning the proposed Academy of the


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illustration

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Sciences and Fine Arts for Richmond. James Rumsey "of Berkeley County, Virginia's" Explanation of the Steam Engine (1788) and William Tatham's prospectus for a Dismal Swamp Canal (1808) indicate that all of Jefferson's contemporary fellow-citizens were not farmers, politicians, lawyers, or physicians.

In the years after 1814 Jefferson continued to receive medical treatises from the Ewells and replaced his editions of Binns, Randolph, Taylor, and Gronovius-Clayton. James Madison sent him his own Address on agriculture (probably that before the Agricultural Society of Albemarle). The letters show that in these last years Jefferson was more than ever the farmer.

Under his second major division of Philosophy Jefferson had the headings Moral and Mathematical. Under Moral were Ethics and Jurisprudence; under Jurisprudence, Religious, Municipal, and Œconomical. Under Municipal were Domestic and Foreign; under Domestic were Equity, Common Law, Law Merchant, and Law Ecclesiastical. Under Œconomical were Politics and Commerce. Virginians contributed something in each of these classes. Joshua Peel, from Bedford County, dedicated to Jefferson his Truth and Reason: or, A Fair Investigation of many of those things which keep them in the shade delivered in a course of Theological Lectures (1805). Quaker and Virginia-born Warner Mifflin contributed to the Ethics of Nature and Nations A Serious Expostulation with Members of the House of Representatives of the United States [1793]. Mason Locke Weems, David Rice, Barnaby Nixon, Richard Watson, and an anonymous Anglican clergyman sent him sermons, letters, and addresses dated from 1797 through 1806, all placed in the Religious classification.

Under the various Law classifications Jefferson listed a large number of Virginia items. What are perhaps the most valuable of them, the manuscript volumes, will be discussed later. But Jefferson was equally proud of his printed laws. In 1803 he wrote John Daly Burk that

I possess a tolerably compleat set of the printed laws of Virginia. this being the only set in existence, (for they are lost from the offices) and being now resorted to from all parts of the state as the only resource for laws not to be found in the late publications, I have been obliged to decline letting the volumes go out of my possession further than Milton or Charlottesville, because the loss of a volume would be irreparable. . . . (February 21, Sowerby, I, 212).

Jefferson owned John Purvis' A Complete Collection of all the Laws of Virginia now in Force (c. 1684), A Collection of the Acts of


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Assembly (1733), the Revisal of 1661/2-1748, the Acts of Assembly (1661/2-1678), the Chancellor's Collection of Acts and Ordinances (1783); an eight-volume "collection of all the printed laws of Virginia" which included Purvis, the Revisals of 1733, 1748, and 1768, the "Fugitive Sheets of printed laws" of 1734-1772, and 1775-1783, and the Revisals of 1783 and 1794. He possessed William Waller Hening's Statutes at Large (1809, 1810, 1812). Among other items are his copy as committeeman of the Report of the Committee of Revisors appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia . . . in [1776] (1784); Draughts of Such Bills, as Have Been Prepared by the Committee Appointed under the Act, Intituled. . . . (1792); Edmund Randolph's Abridgement of the Public Permanent Laws of Virginia (1796); A Collection of all Such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, of a Public and Permanent Nature, as are now in force (1803); William Beverley's Abridgement (1728), John Mercer's Exact Abridgement (1737) and another edition of the same (1759); two accounts of the Burr trial (1807, 1808); George Webb's The Office and Authority of a Justice of the Peace (1736); Hening's The New Virginia Justice (1795); George Hay's Essay on the Liberty of the Press (1803), Bushrod Washington's Reports (1798-1799); Daniel Call's Reports (1801); William Tatham's Report of a Case (1794), and Hening and Munford's Reports (1808, 1809). The Common Law section of Virginiana is rounded off with a copy of The Charter, Transfer, and Statutes, of the College of William and Mary (1758). And the whole Law section concludes with a James Madison pamphlet on neutral trade (1805), Jefferson's own Report of the Secretary of State, on the Privileges and Restrictions on the Commerce of the United States in Foreign Countries . . . 1793 (1806), and An Abridgement of the Laws in Force and Use in His Majesty's Plantations; (viz.) of Virginia. . . . (1704). To these may be added some of the things received from George Wythe, including Wythe's Decisions of Cases in Virginia, by the High Court of Chancery. . . . (1795) and a set of six pamphlet Reports (c. 1796?) of cases with annotations in Wythe's hand.

A number of these, notably Wythe's Chancery Decisions, Hening's New Virginia Justice, Washington's Reports, Mercer's Abridgement (1758), and a number of Acts of Assembly, Jefferson managed to duplicate after 1814. And according to the 1829 catalogue (see items 562-583) he added Revised Codes and Reports of the Session Acts of the 1814-1825 period, as well as Munford's General Index to the Virginia Law Authorities (1819).

Under the subdivision of Politics Jefferson sent to Congress his


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largest number of printed items pertaining to Virginia. Of a little over thirteen hundred items from all nations, about one hundred are by Virginians, frequently on Virginia topics. In these books and pamphlets one may trace among other things the history of Democratic-Republican and Jeffersonian politics over a quarter of a century, from Jefferson's years in Paris to those of his retirement from public life. In this group are his own Act for Establishing Religious Freedom (an English-French edition of about 1786), A Summary View of the Rights of British America (a unique copy with manuscript notes by the author, c. 1774), An Appendix to the Notes on Virginia Relative to the Murder of Logan's Family [1800], the Speech of . . . delivered at his Instalment, March 4, 1801 [First Inaugural Address] (1801), A Test of the Religious Principles of Mr. Jefferson; Extracted (Verbatim) from His Writings (1800), Discorsi del Signore Tommaso Jefferson delli Stati Uniti di America fatti tradurre e pubblicare dall' Illustrissimo Signore Leandro Cathcart (Livorno, 1804), The Proceedings of the Government of the United States, in maintaining the Public Right to the Beach of the Missisipi, and adjacent to New-Orleans. . . . (1812, two copies), and Message from the President of the United States, Communicating Discoveries Made in Exploring the Missouri . . . by Captains Lewis and Clark . . . . (1806). And there is an interesting edition of Destutt de Tracy's Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws (Philadelphia, 1811) for which Jefferson wrote the Preface.

The first President is also well represented in George Washington to the People of the United States, Announcing his Retirement from Public Life (1800), A Message of the President of the United States to Congress relative to France and Great-Britain [1793], and Letters from George Washington to Several of His Friends . . . 1776 (c. 1795; Washington declared the 1778 edition of this spurious). And it is not remarkable that Jefferson's close friend James Madison is even better represented by The Federalist (1788; on the flyleaf Jefferson has identified the numbers by Madison); Letters of Helvidius: Written in Reply to Pacificus, on the President's Proclamation of Neutrality [1796], Political Observations (1795; Jefferson identifies this as Madison's), A Memoir, Containing an Examination of the British Doctrine, Which Subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade, Not Open in Time of Peace (1806), All Impressments Unlawful and Inadmissible (1806), Letters from the Secretary of State to Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney (1808), and Extract from a Letter from the Secretary of State to Mr. Monroe, Relative to the Impressments (1806). James Monroe naturally too is present: Some Observations on the Constitution &c. (1788;


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Jefferson attributed this to Monroe), The Governor's Letter, of the 6th of December, 1802, to the Speaker of the House of Delegates of Virginia (1802), A View of the Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign Affairs of the United States, as Connected with the Mission to the French Republic during the Years 1794, 5, and 6 (1798), and Correspondence in Relation to the British Treaty of Peace (1808).

Many Virginia followers of Jefferson's party from its beginnings to the War of 1812, and a few anti-Jeffersonians, are represented among the political books and pamphlets. St. George Tucker's Dissertation on Slavery: with a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of It, in the State of Virginia (1796) and his Reflections on the Policy and Necessity of Encouraging the Commerce of the Citizens of the United States of America (1785) are significant essays by the William and Mary professor. Jefferson's Albemarle neighbor the Italian Philip Mazzei is represented by two essays, one in French and one in Italian (1788 and 1803); English James Currie, physician, and Scottish Patrick Colquhoun, economist, both of whom lived in Virginia for some years, by one treatise each (1793 and 1788 respectively). Included here are essays by prominent citizens such as Fulwar Skipwith (1806), Richard Henry Lee (1787), Arthur Lee (1774), Robert Carter Nicholas (1774), Carter Braxton (1776), William Tatham (1791), John Taylor (1794), Edmund Randolph (1795, 1796), John Page (1796), W.C. Nicholas (1799?), Benjamin Watkins Leigh (two in 1811), Richard Evers Lee (1800), John Daly Burk (1803), Philip Grymes (1803), William Branch Giles (1808), and John Thomson (1804). Other native Virginians whose reputations were acquired outside the state, men such as William Henry Harrison (1807) and Henry Clay (1813), are also represented.

There are two essays by Jefferson's eccentric neighbor the orator and schoolmaster James Ogilvie (1798, 1802), several pseudonymous essayists under names like Virginius and Oliver Fairplay who wrote for or against Jefferson, and several contributions to the Logan controversy. There are Virginia essays on systems of banking (1811), militia (1813), the Navy (1808), and the Burr Trial (1807). Here may be found the notorious James Thomson Callender's The Prospect before Us (1800).[17] Here is the only known copy of a 1769 edition of John Dickinson and Arthur Lee's The Farmer's and Monitor's Letters, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies. Altogether these items form


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an amusing and entertaining as well as significant representation of early American politics.

Naturally it was difficult if not usually impossible to replace these so frequently topical books and pamphlets after 1814. But Jefferson did secure a new copy of Hay's essay on the liberty of the press and a new 1818 edition of The Federalist as well as an additional older one. Old friends sent him their current political writings, and this section of the 1829 catalogue lists a now valuable collection of essays and books by people such as John Taylor of Caroline, who sent Construction Construed, and Constitutions Vindicated (1820) and New Views of the Constitution of the United States (1823); Francis Gilmer, who contributed his Vindication of the Laws . . . against Usury from the Objections of Jeremy Bentham and the Edinburgh Reviewers (1820), and David B. Warden, whose book On the Origin, Nature, Progress and Influence of Consular Establishments (1813) must have interested the old statesman at Monticello a great deal. And he received in this period printed copies of series of State Papers covering the 1793-1820 period. Almost all these seem to have been gifts. There is little or no evidence of conscious collecting of this kind of Virginiana during these last dozen years.

The second principal subdivision of the classification Philosophy was Mathematical, and under Mathematical were included the various types of Mathematics, Physico-Mathematics, Astronomy, and Geography. Under Pure Mathematics and Astronomy one finds no Virginiana in the collection completed in 1814, and under Physico-Mathematics only Jefferson's own Notes on the Establishment of a Money Unit, and of Coinage for the United States [c. 1785] and Report of the Secretary of State, on the Subject of Establishing a Uniformity in the Weights, Measures and Coins of the United States (1790). It is not until we come to Geography that there is Virginiana again. Here are a group of sixteenth and seventeenth-century books that might perhaps have been included with History earlier. A magnificent set of DeBry's The Great or American Voyages, Parts I to XI, in Latin (1590-1619); Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations (1589, the Richard Bland library copy); Edward Williams' Virginia: More especially the South part thereof, Richly and truly valued (1650); Robert Johnson's Nova Britannia (1609); and William Bullock's Virginia Impartially Examined (1649) are in themselves realizations of a book collector's dream. Here under Geography he also includes a rare tract by his friend William Tatham, Address to the Shareholders and Others Interested in the Canals of Virginia (1794), and the two-volume 1814 edition


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of Lewis and Clark's History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark. Also he lists here a first edition of his Notes on the State of Virginia (Paris, 1785), Appendix to the Notes on Virginia (1800; there was another copy earlier in the Catalogue), and Message from the President of the United States, Transmitting a Roll of the Persons Having Office or Employment under the United States (1802).

Jefferson had a good collection under the third and final major classification, Fine Arts, but it is hardly strange that very little of it is Virginian in subject or author. What little there is hardly indicative of his aesthetic tastes, for most of the items were presentation copies from authors. Such is Thomas Northmore's Washington, or Liberty Restored: a Poem in Ten Books (1809). Dedicated to him was Judith Lomax's The Notes of an American Lyre (1813). Jefferson subscribed for twelve copies of this latter work, presumably out of friendship for the author's father Thomas Lomax. More interesting among the volumes of verse is St. George Tucker's (identified as author by Jefferson himself) The Probationary Odes of Jonathan Pindar, Esq. (1796). After 1814 he received one more volume of native poetry, Mrs. Alfred W. Elwes'[?] Potomac Muse (1825).

Under Logic in the Fine Arts division were Rhetoric and Oratory. Here one finds Jean François Coste's oration given at Williamsburg in 1782 in Latin (1783) and James Lyons' medical dissertation, in Latin, on the cholera (1785). Here also are a volume of eulogiums on Washington (probably 1802), an oration (1808) by Ferdinando Fairfax, Thomas E. Birch's anthology (containing an ode to Jefferson), The Virginian Orator: being a Variety of Original and Selected Poems, Orations and Dramatic Scenes; to improve the American Youth in the Ornamental and Useful Art of Eloquence and Gesture (1808), a copy of William Wirt's [and others'] volume of essays, The Rainbow, First Series (1804), and (all that was ever published of) James Lyon's National Magazine: or, A Political, Historical, Biographical, and Literary Repository, for June 1, 1799 (1799). Only one such item of Fine Arts-Virginiana does the 1814-1826 library contain, a copy of George Tucker's Essays on Various Subjects of Taste, Morals, and National Policy (1822), probably presented by the author in 1825 when he came to Charlottesville as first chairman of the faculty of the University of Virginia.


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B. Virginia Imprints

The bibliographer may be even more interested in Jefferson's Virginia imprints than in his Virginia subjects and authors. These imprints can be determined accurately only for his greatest library, that already catalogued by Miss Sowerby. But these alone reveal a great deal about printers and publishers in early Virginia. The many Richmond, Williamsburg, and Petersburg impressions indicate more or less sustained publishing activity in those places, and the smaller numbers for Abingdon, Alexandria, Charlottesville, Fincastle, Fredericksburg, Martinsburg (now West Virginia), Norfolk, Shepherd's-Town (now West Virginia), and Staunton are significant in various ways.[18]

Joshua Peel's Truth and Reason [1805], though written by a resident of Bedford County, was taken over to a printer named David Amen, of Fincastle, in neighboring Botetourt, for publication. Why Richard Watson, Bishop of Landaff's, Christian Panoply, a series of letters addressed to Thomas Paine, was published by P. Rootes & C. Blagrove of Shepherd's-Town for the Presbyterian Synod of Virginia in 1797 might not be too hard to guess or even to determine exactly. William Thomson, an Abingdon lawyer, got the Holston Intelligencer in his place of residence to print his Compendious View of the Trial of Aaron Burr . . . Together with Biographical Sketches of Several Eminent Characters (1807), a volume Jefferson professed to have read with great satisfaction. Martinsburg is represented by a Protestant Episcopal sermon, published by John Alberts. James Lyon, and later John McArthur, published the Political Mirror under a Staunton imprint. John Dunlap and James Hayes in Charlottesville published two official volumes of state Acts and Journals for 1781. Fredericksburg appears on the dateline of two newspapers, The Genius of Liberty, G. Carter and others 1798-1800, and The Virginia Herald and Fredericksburg & Falmouth Advertiser, Timothy Green 1795-1796. In Norfolk, besides newspapers like The American Gazette, William Davis 1795-1796, there had been printed William Tatham's View of the Proposed Grand Junction Canal (1808), presumably by the author; Daniel Bedinger's Letter . . . to Robert Smith (1808), A. C. Gordon & Co.; and Arrowsmith and Lewis' New and Elegant Atlas (1804), Bonsal, Conrad, and Co. (this last also published at a number of other places). Sir Robert Wilson's History of the British Expedition to Egypt (1803)


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and Benjamin Rush's An Inquiry into the various Sources of the usual Forms of Summer & Autumnal Fever in the United States. . . . (1805) likewise have Norfolk imprints along with those of other cities. Alexandria, though a part of the District of Columbia rather than of Virginia during much of this period, may also be considered. This city's printing activity is evident in a number of pamphlets such as James Ogilvie's Cursory Reflexions on Government, Philosophy and Education (1802), J. & J. De Westcott; James Workman's Political Essays, Relative to the War of the French Revolution (1801), Cottom and Stewart; Richard Dinmore's A Long Talk, Delivered before the Tammany Society of Alexandria (1804), the Expositor Office; August B. Woodward's Consideration on the Government of the Territory of Columbia (1802), S. Snowden & Co., and G. W. P. Custis' Address to the People of the United States (1808), also Snowden.

Jefferson's thirty-five Williamsburg imprints, in several instances multi-volumed with different printers within the series, range in time from 1733 to 1781 and include a number of the official records of the colony and state. The first printer, William Parks, is represented in eleven items such as Journals of the House of Burgesses (1740-1748), A Collection of All the Acts of Assembly, Now in Force (1733, the first collection of Virginia laws published in Virginia), Biscoe's The Merchant's Magazine (1743), Stith's History (1747), Treaty Held with the Indians of the Six Nations at Lancaster (1744), Mercer's Abridgement (1737), Webb's Justice of the Peace (1736), The Virginia Gazette (1741-1750), and interesting English books on fencing and the small-sword (1734), a sermon on death (1744), and a treatise on the Lord's Supper (1740). William Hunter's press is represented in four imprints, including some of the official papers and The Virginia Gazette, 1751-1778. John Dixon and Alexander Purdie appear in combination twice, Dixon and Thomas Nicolson together four times, Purdie alone about ten times. William Rind's name on his Virginia Gazette and official papers appears alone at least three times, with Purdie and Dixon once. Rind also printed the rare edition of The Farmer's and Monitor's Letters (1769, referred to above). His widow, Clementina Rind, published Jefferson's Summary View in 1774; and John Pinkney, "for Clementina Rind's Children," printed Francis Hopkinson's A Pretty Story the same year.

Petersburg is represented by eight imprints, three of which, the Sir Thomas Wilson, Benjamin Rush, and Arrowsmith and Lewis (map) items referred to above, are also Norfolk imprints. But John Daly Burk, a resident of the little city, published there in 1804 and 1805


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the three volumes of his History of Virginia, printed for the author by Dickson & Pescud, and in 1803 An Oration, T. Field. Here appeared Richard Mason's The Gentleman's Pocket Companion (1811), John Jackson; [James Monroe's] Some Observations on the Constitution (1788), Hunter and Prentis; and Debates and Other Proceedings of the Convention of Virginia [1788, 1789], Hunter and Prentis, and Prentis.

Richmond is represented in more than sixty items, ranging in time from 1780/1, when the official printers Dixon and Nicolson moved to the new capital from Williamsburg, to items published in 1813. Again the largest single group is the official state publications, more than two dozen, works such as Acts Passed. . ., A Collection of Such Acts. . ., Debates and Journals of the Senate and House of Delegates, and Reports of the Supreme Court of Appeals. The official printers include Nicolson alone, Dixon and Nicolson, Dixon and Holt, Nicolson and Prentis, J. Dunlap and James Hayes, Augustine Davis, Pleasants and Pace, Pleasants alone, Meriwether Jones, and various combinations of these men. The same firms also printed semi-official and private books and newspapers. Pleasants published several newspapers, including The Virginia Gazette (1795), The Virginia Argus (1797) and its successors (Jefferson's copies 1797-1803, 1804-1808, 1809-1813, etc.), and The Richmond and Manchester Advertiser (1795-1796). He also printed the volumes of Hening's Statutes at Large (1809, 1810, 1812) and belletristic items such as Birch's The Virginian Orator (1808) and Lomax's The Notes of an American Lyre (1813). Thomas Ritchie printed the famous Richmond Enquirer and items like Sidney Smith's Letters on the Subject of the Catholics (1809), "from the Office of the Enquirer;" and his firm of Ritchie and Worsley published Wirt's Rainbow essays (1804). Thomas Nicolson printed a number of things other than the official records, agricultural pamphlets such as Ambler's Treatise on the Culture of Lucerne (1800?) and John Randolph's Treatise on Gardening (1793), and semi-official books like Hening's The New Virginia Justice (1795). Seaton Grantland's imprint appears on Sketches of the History of France . . . By an American (1806) and Barnaby Nixon's A Serious Address to the Rulers of America in General, and the State of Virginia in Particular. . . . (1806). John Dixon supplemented his official printing with two newspapers, The Virginia Gazette and Richmond Chronicle (1795) and Richmond Chronicle (1795-1796), apparently neither very successful. Jones and Dixon as a firm published another James Ogilvie essay, A Speech . . . in Essex County (1798) and Jones alone Richard Evers Lee's Letters (1800)


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and James Monroe's Governor's Letter (1802, perhaps semi-official). Dixon and Holt printed St. George Tucker's Reflections on commerce (1795). Augustine Davis supplemented his official publishing with such works as Decius' Letters on the Opposition to the New Constitution in Virginia (1789). The National Magazine (1799-1800) was printed "by and for the Editor," James Lyon, who also lived and worked elsewhere. Other Richmond imprints bear the names of printer-publishers Manson and John O'Lynch. Jefferson's library alone would indicate that for the little more than a quarter of a century between the Revolution and the War of 1812 the new little village-town-capital of Richmond was a fairly busy publishing center.

C. Rare Books and Pamphlets

The fact that only a fraction of the library which went to Congress in 1814 survives makes it impossible to assess at all precisely the rare-book value of Jefferson's greatest library. But the items which do remain, added to others which may be identified, indicate that the Americana or Virginiana collector today would place a high valuation upon it. First perhaps one should take a glance at association and dedication copies.

There were hundreds of presentation copies in the library without Virginia or even American relationship. Miss Sowerby's Index lists all of the presentation copies together (V, 385-391). Among those of Virginia origin in some sense are Mason L. Weems' Washington (1808) and The True Patriot (1802), medical essays by Edmund Jennings, William Stokes, William Tazewell, and the two Ewells (see below), Thomas Northmore's Washington (1809), Colvin's Historical Letters (1812) and his Letter to the Honorable John Randolph (n.d.), and Birch's The Virginian Orator. Miss Sowerby also lists all the dedication copies (V, 329). Dedicated to Jefferson, though of course his copy does not always survive, are, among others, Burk's History of Virginia, James Ewell's Medical Companion (1807), Thomas Ewell's Plain Discourses (1806), Lomax's Notes of an American Lyre, Joshua Peel's Truth and Reason, and Stokes' De Asphyxia (1793). The list of books in which Jefferson is mentioned (Sowerby, V, 329-331) runs into the hundreds.

Already pointed out in connection with their listing under author, subject, or imprint above were a number of interesting association copies. Other association copies, with manuscript additions of value, are Sir John Randolph's common-place book bound with A Brief Method of Law (1680), Jefferson's own Summary View (1774) with


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several notes by the author, and the two volumes of the 1788 Federalist with Madison's contributions noted in Jefferson's handwriting. This last book is of interest also as the copy belonging to Mrs. Alexander Hamilton received by Jefferson through his good friend her sister Mrs. Angelica Church.

Other items now or once present are scarce editions or apparently unique copies (as far as present location is concerned). No copy is known to exist of the 1793 edition of John Randolph's Treatise on Gardening which Jefferson once owned, and the only copy Miss Sowerby was able to locate of the Dickinson-Lee The Farmer's and Monitor's Letters is Jefferson's. Rare Virginia pamphlets, many of them unincluded in most Virginia bibliographies, are Peel's Truth and Reason (1805) and Sherlock's A Practical Discourse Concerning Death (1744). Hakluyt's Principal Navigations (1589), Johnson's Nova Britannia (1609), and Bullock's Virginia Impartially Examined are first editions of considerable value. Williams' Virginia (1650) and DeBry's Voyages (1590-1619), the latter not quite complete, are also rare. The first editions Jefferson owned of the histories of Virginia by Smith (1632, first issue), Keith (1738), Stith (1747), and Burk (1804, 1805) bring high prices today. And the first editions of Marshall's Washington (1804, 1805, 1807), Jefferson's own Notes on the State of Virginia (Paris, 1785), and Lewis and Clark's History of the Expedition. . . . (1814) are prized items. There are scores of others.

As noted above, Jefferson was well aware that his most valuable printed items were his copies of the Virginia laws and legislative journals. He knew that he had the most nearly complete collection of them in existence. They were equally useful to lawyer, historian, and statesman.