University of Virginia Library

THE JEFFERSONIAN PROVENANCE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
VIRGINIA COPY OF COPERNICUS'S DE REVOLUTIONIBUS:
ADDENDUM TO GINGERICH
by
Samuel V. Lemley

IN his 2002 book An Annotated Census of Copernicus' DE REVOLUTIONIBUS
(Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566), Owen Gingerich concludes that the prov-
enance of the University of Virginia's copy-the second edition, printed in Ba-
sel in 1566-is indeterminate. Gingerich suggests that the volume "might be
a replacement" for the original copy ordered by Thomas Jefferson, presumed
lost in a fire that destroyed much of the university's library in the Rotunda on
October 27, 1895 (351). In a subsequent account, The Book Nobody Read: Chasing
the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus (2004), Gingerich revisits the provenance of
the Virginia Copernicus and reaches a similar verdict: "Because many of the
volumes of the library were destroyed by fire in 1895, it is now impossible to
knowwhether the copy is the original one or a replacement" (247). My ongo-
ing investigation into historical shelf marks and original bindings extant in the
University of Virginia library reveals that the recovery of theprovenance of the
Virginia Copernicus is far from impossible; in fact, Gingerich's Censusrecords
some of the evidence useful in establishing its Jeffersonian origin.

Jefferson's manuscript desiderata for the university library confirm that a
copy of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus was on order in 1825. 1 This list also reveals
that Jefferson did not specify an edition of the work, leaving the date and place
of publication blank. We know, however, that a copy of the second edition of
De Revolutionibus was added to the collection between 1825 and 1827, because it
appears in the earliest printed catalogue of the library (1828) 2 Presumably, this
is the same copy recorded in a later manuscript catalogue, begun in 1857 and in
use until about 1905 3 These three early lists and catalogues-Jefferson's of 1825,
the printed catalogue of 1828, and the manuscript catalogue of circa 1857—at-
test to the presence of a copy of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus in the university
library from its founding; the question is, was it the same copy held currently in
the University of Virginia's Special Collections Library?

Recent work by Neal D. Curtis reveals that many of the first books shipped
to the university were uniformly bound and that some of these original bindings
retain the shelf marks usedin the University of Virginia's Rotunda library before
the fire. 4 Unfortunately, the Virginia Copernicus was rebound sometime after
Gingerich described it in his census, and any physical evidence unique to the
binding has been lost. 5 Demonstrating the importance ofrecording bibliographi-
cal evidence in detail, however, Gingerich's description allows us to reconstruct
the salient characteristics of this lost binding: "Half calf with yellow-brown paper,
boards loose, red gold-stamped label, red edges." 6 This is a style of binding that
appears with some regularity on volumes with a clear Jeffersonian and Rotunda
library provenance.

Four clues illuminate the provenance of the Virginia Copernicus and dem-
onstrate that it is the same copy ordered by Thomas Jefferson in 1825. These are
best enumerated, as follows.

• Astronomy books were removed from the university library by order of the
  university's Board of Visitors in June 1885 and shelved in the Leander McCor-
  mick Observatory. 7 Unfortunately, the "receipt" of transfer cited in the Board
  of Visitors' minutes does not survive. However, the observatory's director, Or-
  mond Stone, reported to the board in the following year, "in accordance with a
  resolution passed by you, 165 books and pamphlets have been transferred to the
  observatory from the general library of the university. Many of the additions thus
  made are exceedingly valuable." 8
• Evidently during the transfer of astronomy books to the observatory, shelf
  marks were added to the free front endpapers of transferred books. The Virginia
  Copernicus bears the shelf mark "A787" on the recto of its free front endpaper
  in the upper right-hand corner-a point Gingerich assiduously records. The
  prefix "A" presumably identifies books shelved in the "Astronomy" library in the
  observatory. This type of shelf mark does not match the series marking books
  shelved in the general collection. In an extensive review of original astronomical

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  books once shelved in the Rotunda that survive in the University of Virginia Spe-
  cial Collections Library, several were found to contain shelf marks belonging to
  this same series. For example, the university's copy of Pierre Gassendi's Institutio
  Astronomica (1680), also listed in Jefferson's 1825 desiderata, bears the shelf mark
  "A777" beside an apparently contemporary inscription (in the same hand?) on
  the free front endpaper, "Leander McCormick Observatory" (QB41 .G2 1680).
  The university's three volumes of Flamsteed's Historiae Coelestis Britannicae (1725)
  bear the shelf marks "a799-a801" in the same place (QB42 .F5 1725). No non-
  astronomical books with an early or Jeffersonian provenance were found to con-
  tain shelf marks from this series, prefaced "A".
• A small marginal symbol and note in the 1857 manuscript catalog indicates
  that the Virginia Copernicus was in fact "saved from the fire." 9 Another marginal
  note next to this symbol observes that the Virginia Copernicus was shelved in the
  observatory at the time, corroborating the accounts of its removal found in the
  Board of Visitor's minutes for 1885 and 1886.
• The red-painted edges of the Virginia Copernicus and staining from its
  now-absent leather turn-in corners match those in many volumes with a clear
  Jeffersonian or pre-fire provenance, particularly those bound uniformly in the
  style Gingerich describes. Although most of the university's original bindings in
  this style have decayed considerably, intact examples are found on the univer-
  sity's copies of Gassendi's Institutio Astronomica (cited above), Alciphron's Rhetoris
  Epistolae (PA3862 .A3 1798), Adelung's Mithridates (P201 .A3 1806 v. 1–5), and
  Xenophon's Opera (PA4494 .A2 1801, v. 1–4)-all are bound in a style matching
  Gingerich's description: half calf with yellow-brown paper, red gold-
  label, red edges. Intriguingly, this style of binding seems unique to titles with a
  German provenance (either imprint or sale).

Pairing the surviving archival and shelf mark evidence detailed here with
Gingerich's description of the Virginia Copernicus's original binding provides
near proof of its Jeffersonian origin.

Besides establishing the provenance of one of the University of Virginia's
bibliographic treasures, I hope to have demonstrated the potential in pursuing
provenance research both in and around books. While archives, bibliographies,
and institutional records—that is, peripheral sources—are recognized tools in
determining the individual pasts of books, the books themselves offer physical
evidence to which bibliographers are uniquely attuned. It follows, then, that this
evidence must be retained and protected, even (and perhaps especially) when
deemed insignificant. As shown here, historical bindings convey clues that might
only become legible in the future and after renewed scrutiny. In this, Owen
Gingerich's Census provides a helpful model: details, however inscrutable or

seemingly inconsequential, should be fully described and noted. My addendum
to Gingerich meanwhile reaffirms theprotracted and sometimes inadvertently
collaborative aspect of any large-scale bibliographical project. Gingerich's monu-
mental Census, as with any comparably ambitious survey, offers traces to follow
and claims to confirm.