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Chapter 5
The Building Campaign of 1820
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Italian Artisan Disgruntled
While the sculptor in plaster and terra cotta was molding ornaments for frieze work and
running errands in the New York City area, his friend at Monticello was engaged in a minor
"difficulty" with one of the Italian sculptors. Attention has been called already to the Raggi
brothers' dissatisfaction with the Virginia stone. Back in October 1819 the "Senior
[Giamoco] Raggi" communicated the stonecutters' willingness to dissolve their contract
with the university, but the offer was ignored and the stonework commenced, albeit slowly,
for the next ten months.[416] At the beginning of September Michele Raggi renewed his
offer to void his current agreement with the university, this time presenting three new
options, that of carving the Corinthian capitals in Carrara marble at the European quarry
under contract at a "most desirable price"; carving the capitals at Carrara "as if under your
eyes for just the wages which we have now"; and lastly, because he could "no longer work
with these stones since they are thereby prejudicing [my] health," the university could
import stone from Philadelphia or Italy, and meanwhile he would renew his contract for five
years and travel to Europe at his own expense to get his wife.[417] The younger Raggi,
desperate to see his new bride and the child that had been born to them since he left Italy,
recently had sprained his wrist while working on the lesser quality stone so that he could not
v
"work this month or two, in this state of body, and homesick, & love-sick mind, he will be
of no use to us." Thinking that Consul Thomas Appleton in Leghorn could arrange to
furnish capitals cheaper, Jefferson, in agreement with his partner on the committee of
superintendence, made a counter proposal to the stonecutter.[418] The university would
release Raggi with "wages to the day of discontinuing" only, and the Italian would pay the
expenses of his journey and voyage back to his homeland. The committee considered this a
fair compromise because the university had received only about one-half of the time for
work agreed to, although it had paid for the cutter's voyage to America.[419]
Michele Raggi chose to sever his ties to the university on 9 September according to the
terms offered him by the committee of superintendence but apparently had second thoughts
about it after arriving in Washington, for on 26 September he wrote Jefferson a scathing
letter outlining his grievances.
Being unable any longer to stand the bad food which your Director of the College was
sending me, and seeing that you were not putting yourself to any haste to procure the marble
blocks so that I might finish the time of my contract as I would have done if this stone of
yours had not ruined my stomach along with the sheep which the said Director sent me to
eat, for the mere sight of the said food turned my stomach. You know well that my contract
said I was to be lodged and nourished according to my profession, nor are you ignorant how
Artists are treated in Italy and France! Propriety, duty, and justice demand that I be satisfied
at least as to my trip since you have not gotten for me the material to work with not having
the means to give me the marble blocks as explained.[420]
Raggi then appealed for $300 dollars to cover his voyage "back to the bosom of my family
from which you took me" and told Jefferson that the ex-president's "reputation alone
brought me to America, and that it has ruined my expectations and my health, and that I am
going home with one arm perhaps useless to earn my bread." Disappointed that the
university did not commission him to carve the Corinthian capitals at Carrara, he offered to
execute the works out of Washington stone for $1,000 a year, the "least salary that the
lowest of countrymen has, and which I think I, too, deserve." He concluded by begging
Jefferson "not to throw me in the middle of a street" and closed by adding a postscript to
direct the money to the care of "the Widow Franzoni" requesting Jefferson to "answer me in
French."[421]
Jefferson responded to Raggi's complaints and accusations with a lengthy remonstrance that
placed blame squarely upon the young artisan's shoulders. Jefferson first narrated the history
and terms of the contract made in Leghorn with Appleton on behalf of the university and
reminded Raggi of the $200 advance to cover his "expences by sea and land to this place"
and of another $200 that was sent later to Leghorn to enable his wife to come to America.
could not continue here according to your contract, without your wife, and
solicited to be discharged from your obligation. in pure commiseration of your
feelings, it was yielded to, & the Proctor was instructed to arrange with you the
conditions of dissolving the contract and to settle and pay whatever was you
due. one half of your term having now elapsed, it was agreed that the expences
of your coming and wages to that date should be at our charge, but that those
for your return should be your own, as the retirement from the fulfilment of
your engagements for the latter half of your term, was you own act, and not our
wish.
to remain unemployed for another two months because of his wrist injury and when it is
recalled that Jefferson already had written Thomas Appleton on 13 July requesting the
consul to inquire into the cost of carving the capitals at Carrara and crating them for
shipment across the Atlantic. Jefferson then recounted the settlement between Raggi and the
proctor, noting that exclusive of board and lodging the university had spent $919.68 for
Raggi's traveling and wages over a 15-month period and "for this you know, we have
nothing to shew but a single Ionic capitel, and an unfinished Corinthian." Although the
"misfortune was ours, and was increased by that of the sprain of your wrist disabling you
from work," Jefferson said, the university gave up the remaining portion of an agreement
that "might have lessened our loss, merely to indulge the feelings and uneasiness under
which we saw you." Raggi's complaints about his lodging and diet and his insinuation that
Jefferson and Brockenbrough were personally responsible for his misery incensed Jefferson
the most, however:
to lodge in my self. so far I have spoken of my own knolege.
the subject of diet, I learn from others that, in the beginning, it was furnished
you from a French boarding house of your own choice. from this you withdrew,
of your own choice also, and boarded with the Proctor himself, sharing the
same fare with himself, which was that of the respectable families of the
neighborhood, plentiful, wholsome, & decent, in the style of our country, and
such as the best artists here are used to, and contented with. your uncle &
companion, Giacomo Raggi, is so far satisfied with it, and with the treatment he
has recieved in common with you, that altho' he was offered permission to
return with you, he chose to abide by the obligations and benefits of his
contract, and continues his services with perfect contentment. I am conscious of
having myself ever treated you with just respect, and the character of the
Proctor, the most unassuming and accomodating man in the world, is a
sufficient assurance of the same on his part.
indulgence, and of liberality" toward the artisan, told Raggi that the "desponding and
unhappy state" of his mind while at the university "proceeded from the constitutional and
moral affections resulting from your own temperament and the incidents acting on it, and
not from any thing depending on those in our employ." Jefferson declined Raggi's offer to
make the capitals at Washington and closed the matter to further discussion, directing future
correspondence to the proctor, "within whose duties it lies, and not within mine."[422]
417. Michele and Giacomo Raggi to TJ and Cocke, ca 1 September 1820, ViU:TJ; see also
O'Neal, "Michele and Giacomo Raggi at the University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle
County History, 18:20-21.
419. TJ and Cocke to Brockenbrough, 7 September 1820, ViU:PP; see also Brockenbrough's
Memorandum on Michael Raggi, 8 September, in ViU:PP, and TJ's Memorandum on
Michele and Giacomo Raggi, ca 8 September 1820, in ViU:TJ.
420. When writing Michele Raggi on 8 October 1820, Jefferson reminded the artisan of the
terms of the "settlement of your account with the Proctor, the balance of 293. D. 60 cents
was agreed to be due, and were paid you, as appears by a receipt signed by your own hand
and now lying before me in these words. 'University of Virginia Sep. 9. 1820. Recieved of
A. S. Brockenbrough Proctor of the University of Virginia a draught on the bursar of the
same for two hundred & ninety three dollars 60. cents, being the balance in full for my
wages as Sculptor; and I do hereby relinquish all further claim for wages and expences of
my journey & voyage back to Italy, in consideration of my being permitted to withdraw my
obligation to continue three years in the service of Thomas Jefferson esq. as Agent for the
said University of Virginia, or on him individually. witness my hand the day & year above
written. Michele Raggi.'" (DLC:TJ).
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Chapter 5
The Building Campaign of 1820
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |