Colonel Isaac A. Coles gives us an eyewitness account of this use of books by Jefferson. In writing on February 23, 1816, to General John Cocke, who had asked Coles to consult with Jefferson about Cocke's proposed new dwelling at Bremeo, Colonel Coles said that Jefferson pointed out that Palladio was the bible. He has sent all his Books &c. &c. to Washington, or he would have drawn yr. House for you -- it would have been a pleasure to him -- but now he could not undertake to do it before the fall, when he expected other Books from Paris. Note: 3
With his wide personal experience of architecture through books, Jefferson also realized the importance of architectural experience through actual examples, and when he began the design of the University of Virginia, he wrote on Arpil 13, 1817, that he wanted the buildings there to be of various forms, models of chaste architecture, as examples for the schoolof architecture to be formed on. Note: 4 Thus the University's holdings in architectural books, for which he made the want list, and the physical aspect of the University were to reinforce one another architecturally, a process which has taken place thorughout the University's existence.
In the spring of 1825 Jefferson spent what must have been a happy time compiling a catalogue of books for the proposed library of the University. Although he had some help, notably from Bishop James Madison for the section on theology, Note: 5 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 art collections in the country.
When Jefferson sold his "great library" to Congress in 1815, he started reassembling this fine arts collection to include what was for the time a respectable number of architectural books. Forty-nine works on architecture alone were sold in 1815, while at least six, and possibly eleven, on the same subject were in Jefferson's library at his death. Note: 6
Comparable libraries in the United States usually contained fewer such books. Samuel McIntire had seven works on architecture at his death in 1811. Note: 7 Charles Bulfinch had in his possession about fifteen architectural books before his death in 1844. Note: 8 William Byrd's library at Westover showed some twenty-seven architectural entries when it was offered for sale in 1777. Note: 9 The catalogue of the Carpenter's Company of Philadelphia lists only thirty-two architectural books printed before l826. Carpenter's Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, Finding List of the Library (Philadelphia, 1894).
Some version of Palladio was the most commonly owned architectural 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. Note: 11 There is also a letter from James Oldham, a master carpenter, to Jefferson mentioning his own copy of Palladio and telling how it lacked certain information: "J. Oldham sends Mr. Jefferson the Draughts of the window frames for his examination. The Dorick of Diocletians baths, Chambray, is not in the Book of Palladio which I have, and I must aske the favor of Mr. Jefferson to lone me the book to lay down my cornice and I will immediately return it safe." Note: 12
The University of Virginia Library has a manuscript copy of Jefferson's want list of books for the institution. It is labeled "President Jefferson's Catalogue of Books for the University of Virginia Library. 1825." Written in what is probably the hand of Nicholas Trist, Jefferson's secretary, it is endorsed by Jefferson: The preceding 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.
The catalogue 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 subdivided 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-Antient," "Technical Arts" (a subdivision of "History, Civil"), "Architecture" (a subdivision of "Fine Arts"), "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music." (also a subdivision of "Fine Arts"), and "Polygraphical," a section which fell outside the three main subdivisions.
Jefferson's signed endorsement of the existing catalogue and his mention of it in a letter of June 3, 1825, to Hilliard (The copying of our Catalogue was finished yesterday and I now inclose it) Note: 13 attest to its use for ordering his original selections for the library of the new University.
F. W. Page, a former librarian of the University, described an earlier want list, evidently in Jefferson's 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. Note: 14
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. Note: 15
The manuscript described by Page has disappeared, presumably as a result of the disastrous library fire of 1895. A Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Va., 1828; 1945 facsimile edition by W. H. Peden), p. 2.
We have two ways of knowing which of the books ordered by Jefferson for the University were actually delivered in his lifetime. One source is a manuscript catalogue of the library compiled even before the date the Hilliard list was completed, and the other is a printed catalogue that appeared two years after Jefferson's death.
The slight manuscript list, "Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia" by John V. Kean, a student and Jefferson's first appointee to the post of librarian, was dated May 16, 1825, and thus was completed some two months after the University had opened its doors and before any books recommended by the faculty could have been added to the collection. This source and the 1828 i Catalogue are both noted with the relevant books in the descriptive catalogue.
When one remembers that Jefferson was eighty-two when he completed a list of more than six thousand volumes for the University's library, one realizes the magnitude of his achievement. When one finds further that, in the area of the fine arts, many of the volumes are still considered as monuments in their field, Jefferson's choices become even more remarkable.
When it is also remembered that Jefferson's architectural achievements are second only to his political contributions to 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 Jeffersons' philosophy of architecture or his sources for the visual forms with which he gave objective life to that philosophy.
Those volumes not owned by the University at this time have been assigned numbers in order that they may fall into the right place in the descriptive catalogue, but they are clearly indicated as not being present. There are twenty-three of these titles, but two (Nos. 31 and 77) are almost or wholly impossible to reassemble, and three (Nos. 12, 41, and 50) are owned in microprint, except for a few volumes of No. 41. Of the remaining eighteen another two (Nos. 16 and 17) are price books, almost the most fugitive of all, for they were normally worn out with use. Four have to do with structures (Nos.9, 30, 79, and 82), and others are a surveying manual (No. 57), a guidebook (No. 74), an elements of architecture handbook (No. 103), a book on gems (No. 65), a work on public monuments (No. 62), a treatise on geometry (No. 70), and a study of naval architecture (No. 115). One (No.l25b) is a copy of Vitruvius duplicated in two other editions included in the scope of this catalogue, as are two (Nos. 43a and 61a) with single duplicates each, also within the scope of this study. Only the remaining two are of prime importance; both Nos. ll and 81 are not only works of considerable worth in themselves but both were referred to by Jefferson in his notes.
Of the books themselves it is possible to say that, though there is a wide range in dates, they all share a very strong sense of clarity. The purpose is normally stated, sometimes on the title page (the longer the title page, the more important it usually becomes, and the more necessary it is to read it), and the development of the book follows the most direct and logical course.
The vocabularies used are often strange to our eyes and ears. The word art is especially troublesome for the present-day reader, for it could often mean, in the centuries covered by these books, either a craft and the pursuit of a craft or a fine art, whereas modern usage implies fine whenever art is used. But the tone and intent of words as well as the qualities described by them were frequently very different in the early writing Jefferson knew. Words such as sublimity, magnitude, grandeur, beauty, megnificence, elegance , and even terror are just beginning to creep back into architectural language after a long absence. Phrases such as "a glowing Pile of Beauty," "justness in proportion," "singularity in manner," "an astonishing projection" of a cornice, a feature "to wound the eye of a savant," "the grandeur of an entablature," "proper ornaments," "a flowery imagination," "a delicate fancy," and "grand and pompous edifices which always mark the glory of those for whom they were raised" display a world of architectural thought which raises many difficulties to our appreciation but which helps to explain the attitudes of the designers of the time, attitudes that are often reflected in their architecture.
From the books themselves a glimpse of the architectural book market may be seen. Availability is, of course, fundamental to anyone's choice of books. As late as 1804 Jefferson pointed out that there had never been a copy of Palladio in Washington until he brought the London, 1700 edition there (No. 94). In the preface to that particular edition of Palladio, the translator said there are few books we can recommend to you besides the excellent Discourses of Sir H. Wotton and John Evelin, Esq. This was written, presumably, for the book's first edition of 1663. Although the translator for Leoni's 1715 edition of Palladio claims that its illustrations are the first to have been engraved (as opposed to the use of woodcuts) for any Palladio (No. 92a), he is mistaken since our earlier one also has engraved plates. The earlier one comprises, however, only the first book rather than the entire text of Palladio, whereas the 1715 issue is complete.
This rather slow start of the English architectural book market changed quickly, since in 1724 it was necessary for an author to apologize for bringing out another volume at a Time when the Town is already burthened with Volumes (No. s3a). At some time before 1788 I. and J. Taylor had established a publishing house and book shop called the Architectural Library at 56 High Holborn in London. Their catalogue included in a 1788 book had 59 entries, primarily of the handbook variety (No. 16). The speed at which architectural publishing was growing is shown by the Architectural Library's 1793 catalogue (No. 89), which listed over 100 items, including books by John Soane, James Paine, Hepplewhite, John Wood, Sir William Chambers, Stuart and Revett, Brook Taylor, and Batty Langley as well as an expanded group of handbooks.
Jefferson, then, had access to a narrow selection at home but a comparatively wide one abroad. Millicent Sowerby is especially careful in giving the sources of his purchases, and there is little need to amplify that information here. We know, also, from Kimball (pp. 92-101) that of the 49 architectural titles in Jefferson's own library no less than 23 were purchased during his stay abroad between 1785 and 1789.
A cursory examination of the subscription lists included in so many eighteenth-century books turns up further, and sometimes surprising, information about the book market. Gentlemen, that is, people of title or persons dignified with an "Esq.," were very much in the majority, a fact which certainly corroborates the widely held opinion that architecture was a gentlemanly interest during the late seventeenth, the eighteenth, and the early nineteenth centuries. The next largest group of subscribers seems to have been clergymen and physicians, of whom the clergymen were usually and the physicians sometimes included in the ranks of gentlemen. After them come the architects, who are often a very small minority. The crafts-carpenters, carvers, glaziers, joiners, masons, and plasterers-also subscribed but usually in comparatively small numbers. It would seem, then, that a book large enough or important enough to carry a subscription list reached an audience most of whose members were not engaged in the practice of architecture.
We have no way, of course, of tracing the purchasers of handbooks, but since many of the surviving copies are in a very worn condition, it may be assumed that they were in daily use by craftsmen as well as by architects. 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. Note: 18 A letter of May 22, 1825, from Jefferson to Hilliard shows that this approval was given 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. Note: 19
This $18,000 was a portion of the $50,000 received from the "central government" Note: 20 as a partial compensation to the Commonwealth of Virginia for its advances during the War of 1812. Note: 21 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 amount he included an item "Books, say 150. vols. a year @ 10.D.-l,500," or 10 percent of the total budget, while for the second he suggested "Books, suppose 600. vols. a year @ 10.D. -6,000," Note: 22 or 20 per cent of the total budget.
Bruce stated that "all the volumes [in Jefferson's catalogue] descriptive of architecture, sculpture, painting, and music were written in Italian." Note: 23 That this was incorrect is seen when one examines the list itself or considers Jefferson's explanation 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. Note: 24 As we have seen Jefferson also preferred the octavo size, but in the field of the fine arts a great variety of sizes had to be purchased.
Only seventeen of the titles originally purchased survived the 1895 fire in the Library of the University, and some of these survived only in part, but under the seventeen titles are fifty-seven 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 most of the architectural titles that also appeared in the catalogue sent to Hilliard, Note: 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 not as difficult a task as it first appeared. Such a reconstruction was begun by the late E. S. Campbell, Chairman of the School of Art and Architecture at the University from 1927 until his death in 1950. Campbell had purchased a dozen titles as they became available and as funds permitted. Since his death and before the 1956 desiderata list was issued, another dozen items had been acquired. With the titles surviving from Jefferson's original purchase and with replace- ments, the University of Virginia was at that time already numerically in almost as strong a position as it was in 1828 toward establishing the collection in the fine arts that had been proposed. Since then all but twenty-three titles have been acquired, all but two of them the generous gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. Thus a large proportion of the total is available in the University's collection.
It has been a much smaller step to attempt a complete reconstruction of Jefferson's personal architectural library. Of the books listed by Kimball, Note: 26 the library owned a few, including two of the Palladios. In addition, the library also had a copy of Palladio not listed by Kimball, the Leoni edition of 1721, which Jefferson used in building the University, See note 12. though it is uncertain whether the copy used by Jefferson was his personal property. Note: 28 To complete the collection of the entire section on architecture in the personal library will be an important step, and the titles in architecture from the personal list have been added to this study as being relevant to a discussion of Jefferson's sources for architecture and knowledge of the field of architectural books. Note: 29
An examination of Sowerby shows that there are only nineteen additional titles needed to complete a duplication of Jefferson"s personal books on music, painting, and sculpture. The University already owns six of these and two different editions of the seventh and eighth. This leaves only eleven titles unrepresented on the library's shelves. Note: 30
Of one entry in the descriptive catalogue there is some doubt. It was thought at one time that the notation in Jefferson's want list "Portfeuille des artistes ou dessins de chateaux etc. [4to] Leips. 1800" was intended to be identical with No. 117, Christian Ludwig Stieglitz, Plans et dessins tirés de la belle architecture . . . , Leipzig, 1800. It now appears that this may not be exact. For a fuller discussion of this point, see the entry in the text.
Pertinent volumes from "President Jefferson's Catalogue of Books for the University of Virginia Library, 1825": Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 15, 18b, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43b, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49a, 51b, 52, 54, 55, 56, 59b, 61b, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 81, 83, 84, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 95, 96a, 97, 98a, 99, 100, 102, 104, 106, 107, 108, 198, 111c, 112, 114b, 115, 116, 117, 118b, 119, 120, 121, 122, l23a, 124, 125C, 125d, l26a or l26b, l27a or l27b, 128b, 129, and 130.
Pertinent volumes from John V. Kean's "Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia" (May 16, 1825): Nos. 5, 7, 8, 13, 22, 32, 34, 60, 92b, 93, and 114b.
Pertinent volumes from the 1828 Catalogue: Nos. 1, 6, 10, 13, 24, 25, 27, 32, 34, 36, 39, 40, 41, 43b, 48, 52, 56, 59b, 60, 61b, 67, 68, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 78, 93, 95, 96a, 98b, 100, 102, 104, 114b, 116, 118b, 120, 124, 125d, 127a or l27b, 129, and 130.
Pertinent volumes from the Monticello "great" library, taken from Sowerby: Nos. 4, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18a, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43a, 45, 46, 48, 49b, 50, 53a or 53b, 55, 58, 59a, 61a, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 87, 92a, 92c, 92d, 95, 96b, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111a, 111b, 112, 113, 114a, 116, 117, 118a, 119, 120, 122, 123b, 125d, 127a, 128a, and 129.
Pertinent volumes from the 1829 sale catalogue: Nos. 2, 17, 46, 51a, 57, 77, 83, 85, 123a, 125a or 125b, 126a or 126b, and 127a or 127b.
Pertinent volumes from the manuscript catalogue of Jefferson"s library in the Massachusetts Historical Society: Nos. 44 and 94.