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Chapter 8
The Building Campaign of 1823
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Visitors Meet
At the Board of Visitors' annual fall meeting on Monday 6 October 1823 the board only
needed to decide on a couple of matters, besides drafting its annual report to the president
and directors of the Literary Fund.[596] The visitors ratified a contract that the proctor
entered into in September with stonecarver Giacomo Raggi for furnishing the 10 bases and 2
half-bases of the columns for the Rotunda out of Carrara marble (at $65 each whole base)
and recommended to the executive committee that it also procure the capitals for the
building from Carrara, "if practicable on terms not higher than those offered by Thomas
Appleton."[597] The visitors also directed the committee to look into the feasibility of
arranging to have the marble paving squares for the Rotunda's portico made in Italy as well.
When writing to inquire about the 1,400 one-foot squares a couple days after the meeting,
Jefferson also asked Appleton to provide an estimate for the cost of carving from wood the
40 Palladian Composite capitals intended for the dome room of the Rotunda's interior.[598]
Appleton replied in February 1824 that the "polish'd and accurately Squar'd, ready to be laid
Down" squares would cost $22.50 the hundred in Leghorn but tried to convince Jefferson to
carve the interior Composite capitals out of marble, citing a price of $100 each.[599]
Jefferson ordered the squares in May 1824 but sought the interior capitals elsewhere.[600]
596. Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 6 October 1823,
PPAmP:UVA Minutes; see also O'Neal, Jefferson's Buildings at the University of Virginia:
The Rotunda, 28. Cocke and Cabell planned to meet in Charlottesville before the meeting on
4 October to "examine & settle the Accounts of the Proctor & the Bursar" following Cabell's
short visit to White Sulphur Springs in the second half of September (Cabell to Cocke, 9, 16
September 1823, privately owned [1995]).
597. For Raggi's contract to furnish marble, see TJ to Brockenbrough, 2, 17 September,
and Raggi and Brockenbrough, Agreement, 8 September 1823, in ViU:PP; see also O'Neal,
"Michele and Giacomo Raggi at the University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County
History, 18:27-30. Thomas Appleton wrote Jefferson the following June to inform him that
in making the contract, Raggi "was in error, from the expence of excavation, to the last
polish of the marble, and without counting his own labour, he must Still be a loser by the
contract . . . Postscriptum . . . I have learnt from my Sculptor at Carrara, of a Distressing
misfortune which has befallen Giacomo Raggi, who fell from his chair while asleep after
Supper, & has broken the left clavicle which will probably prevent him the use of his arms
for 3 months. The bases were in full progress, & are now Directed by my
Sculptor.--notwithstanding they are Deprived of his labour" (Appleton to TJ, 10-25 June
1824, DLC:TJ).
598. See TJ to Appleton, 8 October 1823, in ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, Jefferson's Buildings
at the University of Virginia: The Rotunda, 28-29.
600. See TJ to Appleton, 17 May 1824, in ViU:TJ; see also ibid., 30-31. On 7 June the
proctor wrote to Philip Sturtevant to ask how much he would charge to carve from wood the
composite capitals for the interior of the Rotunda's dome room. Ten days later Sturtevant
sent an answer from Richmond, saying that he would "Carve the Composit Capitals in
Cluding the Neck Moulding in Every respect Out of the Best Timber and in the Best Manner
after the Plan of Palladio in his first Book Plate xxx for 75 Seventy five Cents Per inch
Measured By Girting the Collum or Capital at the Neck[.] I Realy am So anxsious to Cut
them that I must Beg of you Not to dispose of the work with out Leting Me Know and I
must Honestly Say that I Could furnice them Something Lower Rather than Miss of the Job
But thay are So Extremly Low that I Think you will Not Hesitate to Give me the work"
(Sturtevant to Brockenbrough, 17 June 1824, ViU:PP; see also appendix K). Brockenbrough
calculated a column of figures totaling $1,290 on the coversheet of Sturtevant's letter,
apparently indicating his estimate of the amount that Sturtevant's labor for carving all the
capitals would cost the university.
|
Chapter 8
The Building Campaign of 1823
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |