AN / INQUIRY / INTO THE / PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY / IN / GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE; / WITH / AN HISTORICAL VIEW / OF / THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ART IN / GREECE. / BY GEORGE, EARL OF ABERDEEN, K. T. &c.
/ LONDON: / JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. / 1822.
8vo. Title page (1 leaf ); note (1 leaf ); text ([1]-217).
The fourth earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860) was a diplomat, the foreign secretary under the duke of Wellington, and the holder of various other governmental offices. A trip to Greece in 1803 made him an ardent philhellenist, and he became a founder of the Athenian Society.
His Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture was first published as an introduction to William Wilkins's translation of The Civil Architecture of Vitruvius (London, 1812) and was called there "An Introduction Containing an Historical View of the Rise and Progress of Architecture amongst the Greeks." It was printed separately in London in 1822 and again in 1860 as No. 130 of Weale's series of Rudimentary Works for the Use of Beginners .
The book is not quite as rudimentary as the title of Weale's series might suggest. Aberdeen examines Homer and other literary sources for architectural information and describes surviving monuments, proportions, and the origin of the arch. He sets out to analyze sublimity as follows: Indeed, as I think in all cases of the moral sublime, it may be justly stated that whatever tends to create ideas of superior energy and force, producing thereby an elevation and expansion of mind, is its real and efficient cause; I am persuaded, also, that in visible objects, all such qualities as are capable of exciting similar sensations must be considered as the only true source of sublimity. Of these qualities in monuments of architecture, magnitude is the principal, and perhaps single one, which is indispensable: but its effect may be much increased by the height of the building, and by the solidity of the materials which compose its mass. Height, it may be said, is only extension in a particular direction; but it produces increased sublimity in architecture, because it most forcibly suggests ideas of great effort, and of great power, as well as of difficulty overcome. The solidity of the materials also, confirms and strengthens the first impressions of admiration suggested by magnitude and height; and, in addition to the sense of original difficulty overcome, gives an appearance of eternal stability to the building. [Pp. 5-7]
Although he notes that Edmund Burke (1729-97) in The Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful observes "that uniformity and succession of parts, as the great causes of the artificial infinite, tend mainly in architecture to produce sublimity" (p. 9), he is, in actuality, anti-Burke, anti-flowing line, a proponent of angularity, and a supporter of neoclassicism.
His note on the value of the Greek remains is illuminating both for its description of the state of archaeology then and for its condemnation of the copyist: The precious remains of Grecian art were long neglected, and the most beautiful were, in truth, nearly inaccessible to the Christian world.... Henceforth, therefore, these exquisite remains should form the chief study of the architect who aspires to permanent reputation; other modes are transitory and uncertain, but the essential qualities of Grecian excellence, as they are founded on reason, and are consistent with fitness and propriety, will ever continue to deserve his first care. These models should be imitated, however,-not with the timid and servile hand of a copyist; but their beauties should be transferred to our soil, preserving, at the same time, a due regard to the changes of customs and manners, to the difference of our climate, and to the condition of modern society. [Pp. 215-16]
Jefferson ordered the book for the University in the section on "Architecture" of the want list and a copy had been received by 1828. This copy subsequently disappeared, but another has recently been acquired, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U. Va. *NA270.A2.1822
ROMAN ANTIQUITIES: / OR, AN / ACCOUNT / OF THE / MANNERS AND CUSTOMS / OF THE / ROMANS; / RESPECTING THEIR / GOVERNMENT, MAGISTRACY, LAWS, JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS, RELIGION, GAMES, / MILITARY AND NAVAL AFFAIRS, DRESS, EXERCISE, BATHS, MARRIAGES, DI- / VORCES, FUNERALS, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, COINS, METHOD OF WRITING, / HOUSES, GARDENS, AGRICULTURE, CARRIAGES, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, &c. &c. / DESIGNED CHIEFLY / TO ILLUSTRATE THE / LATIN CLASSICS, / BY EXPLAINING WORDS AND PHRASES, FROM THE RITES AND / CUSTOMS TO WHICH THEY REFER. / BY ALEXANDER ADAM, LL. D. / RECTOR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH. / REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, / BY P. WILSON, LL. D. / PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE.
/ NEW-YORK: / PRINTED BY WILLIAM A. MERCEIN, NO. 93 GOLD-STREET, / For Kirk & Mercein, W. B. Gilley, C. Wiley & Co. John Sayre, Scott &: Seguine, John Tie-/bout, L. & F. Lockwood E. Bliss, Samuel Campbell & Son, A. T. Goodrich & Co. G. A. / Banks, New-York, and Cushing & Jewett, and F. Lucas, jun. Baltimore. / Sept. 1819.
8vo. Title page ([i]); preface to first ed. ([iii]-vii); note to 2d ed. (viii); table of contents ([ix]-xii); (1-16 skipped); text ([17]-548); Latin index (549~56); index of proper names and things (557-65).
Title page inscribed: 'S. A. Elliot's-1829-Bought at the sale of Mr. Jefferson's library.'
Alexander Adam (1741-1809) was the son of a farmer. He learned Latin at the parish school, then went to Edinburgh where he attended lectures at the university and at nineteen became the headmaster of Watson's Hospital. He later was the tutor to the family of a Mr. Kincaid, and finally rector of the High School. Lord Cockburn said of him, "He was born to teach Latin, some Greek, and all virtue."
He was paid £600 for Roman Antiquities , which was first published in 1791 and subsequently went into several editions, being issued both in England and in America. Although its architectural passages are minor, it does treat, in descriptions taken from Roman literature, of libraries (pp. 492-93), houses (pp. 493 96, 499-503), villas and gardens (pp. 5044), and public buildings (pp. 543-47).
A sample description follows: 2. The PANTHEON, built by Agrippa, son-in-law to Augustus, and dedicated to Jupiter Ultor, Plin. xxxvi. 15. or to Mars and Venus, Dio. liii. 27. or, as its name imports, to all the gods, see p. 309. Note: p15.f1 repaired by Adrian, Spartian. 19. consecrated by Pope Boniface IV. to the Virgin Mary, and All Saints, A.D. 607. now called the Rotunda, from its round figure, said to be 150 feet high, and of about the same breadth. The roof is curiously vaulted, void spaces being left here and there for the greater strength. It has no windows, but only an opening in the top for the admission of light, of about 25 feet diameter. The walls in the inside are either solid marble or incrusted. The front on the outside was covered with brazen plates gilt, the top with silver-plates, but now it is covered with lead. The gate was of brass of extraordinary work and size. They used to ascend it by twelve steps, but now they go down as many; the earth around being so much raised by the demolition of houses. [P. 535]
Laid in the University of Virginia's copy is a letter, dated February 24, 1950, from E. Millicent Sowerby: On June 8, 1821 Jefferson wrote a letter to his kinsman and agent, Captain Bernard Peyton, and on the polygraph copy retained by himself added a note: June 25. wrote to him for Adam's Roman antiquities & Valpy's Gr. grammar, to come by mail.
Three days later, on June 28 (received by Jefferson at Monticello on July 2) Peyton wrote from Richmond: I send herewith, agreeable to your request, Adam's Roaman [sic] Antiquities & Valpy's Greek Grammar, both of which I wish safe to hand. . . . The book, as you know was lot no. 60 at the sale in 1829.
The originals of the above letter and note are in the Coolidge Collection in the MHS.
"The book" refers to the specific copy of the book now in the library. Thus, although the University has Jefferson's own copy of Adam (see Plate I), acquired in recent years by the McGregor Library, there is no record that the copy he ordered for it, in the section on "History-Civil-Antient" of the want list, was ever received. Since Jefferson ordered his copy during June 1821 and his drawings for the Rotunda were approved by the Board of Visitors on April 2, 1821, the book cannot have had any influence on the design of the University. Note: p16.f2
U.Va. M *A1819.A332
RUINS OF THE PALACE / OF THE EMPEROR DIOCLETIAN / AT SPALATRO IN DALMATIA / BY R. ADAM F.R.S. F.S.A. / ARCHITECT TO THE KING / AND TO THE QUEEN /
PRINTED FOR A. MILLAR / MDCCLXIIII
Folio. Title page ( [i] ); dedication ( [iii]-iv ); list of subscribers (4 leaves); introduction (1]-4); text ([5]-17); explanation of plates ([19]-33); 60 engraved plates, of which 11 are folding (Plate I of a total of 61 plates is missing).
The engravers for this notable work were Francesco Bartolozzi (1725 or 1727-1813 or 1815), a Florentine who came to England just in time to work on the book and who went to Lisbon in 1802 to become director of the National Academy there; James Basire (1730-1802), who had studied with Dalton and in Rome, and who became both the father and grandfather of engravers also named James Basire; Domenico Cunego (1727-94), Italian, who, though a painter, distinguished himself as an engraver; Peter Mazell (fl.1761-97), English; F. Patton (fl.1754-64), English; Edward Rooker (ca. 1712-74), English, who worked on several architectural books, particularly for Chambers and Stuart as well as Adam; P. Santini; Anthony Walker (1726-65), one of a family of Scottish engravers who settled in London, Anthony studying at St. Martin's Lane Academy and working largely for Boydell; and Zucchi, a member of an Italian family of engravers which originated in Venice, flourished during both the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and worked in many Italian and foreign centers.
The professionals among the subscribers include four architects, three booksellers, two carpenters, a carver, the Clerk of the Signet, fourteen doctors, eight ecclesiastics, an engineer, two merchants, six painters, two printers, and two statuaries. Charles-Louis Clrisseau, Adam's assistant; Adam's three brothers, John, James, and William; Giovanni Battista Piranesi; James Dawkins; Thomas Whatley; and Joshua Kirby, the "Designer in Perspective to his Majesty," all appear on the list. But also included is a "Major General Julius Caesar"!
Robert Adam (1728 92) was not only an architect himself but the son of the architect William Adam and the brother of the architects John, James, and William Adam. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he went to Italy in 1754. On his return to England he was appointed architect to the king and queen and in 1762 became both F.R.S. and F.S.A.
He describes in his introduction his entourage for his investigations at Spalatro, the modern Split: "Having prevailed on Mr. Clerisseau, a French artist, from whose taste and knowledge of antiquities I was certain of receiving great assistance in the execution of my scheme, to accompany me in this expedition, and having engaged two draughtsmen, of whose skill and accuracy I had long experience, we set sail from Venice on the 11th of July, 1757, and on the 22nd of that month arrived at Spalatro" (p. 2). There is a figure of one of the draughtsmen at work in his Plate XXXIII, the "View of the Inside of the Temple of Jupiter" (see Plate II).
He also gives a description of his methods of work at the palace: "By good fortune its remains are, in many places, so intire, as to be able to fix, with the utmost certainty, the form and dimensions of the principal apartments. The knowledge of these, leads to the discovery of the corresponding parts; and the descriptions given us by Pliny and Vitruvius Note: p19.f1 of the Roman villas, enable us to assign each apartment its proper name, and to discover its use" (p. 7). This literary method was followed by other authors, notably by the two preceding and Robert Castell (No. 21).
The DNB article on Adam says that the Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian was published "because of its residential character, classical architecture being studied in England exclusively from the remains of public buildings." That this was a desirable procedure is corroborated by Adam when he says: THE buildings of the Ancients are in Architecture, what the works of Nature are with respect to the other Arts; they serve as models which we should imitate, and as standards by which we ought to judge: for this reason, they who aim at eminence, either in the knowledge or in the practice of Architecture, find it necessary to view with their own eyes the works of the Ancients which remain, that they may catch from them those ideas of grandeur and beauty, which nothing, perhaps, but such an observation can suggest.
[P. 1]
The Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian has also been called "a work of incalculable importance in the development of the European neo-classical movement." Note: p19.f2
Although Jefferson himself did not own a copy of this book, he may very well have known it from the time of his stay in France where he, too, worked with Charles-Louis Clrisseau (No. 29). In any case Adam's "General Plan of the Palace restored" (see Plate III) would have been to his liking with its many octagonal forms.
Jefferson ordered the Spalatro for the University in the section on "Architecture" of the want list, but there is no record of its having been received during his lifetime. The library's present copy was acquired during this century.
U. Va. *NA320.A3.1764
L'ARCHITETTVRA / DI LEONBATTISTA / ALBERTI / TRADOTTA IN LINGVA / Fiorentina da Cosimo Bartoli, / Gentilhuomo, & Academico / Fiorentino. / Con la aggiunta di Disegni.
/ In VENETIA,
Appresso Francesco Franceschi , Sanese. 1565. 
Small 4to. Title page (1 unnumbered p.); woodcut portrait (1 unnumbered p.); dedication (1 leaf); poem ([1-2]); 2d dedication ([3]-4); Alberti's preface (5-8); text, with 48 woodcut plates, of which 1 is folding, all in numbered pagination, and with 35 additional woodcut figures (9-404); index (14 unnumbered leaves).
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) was born in Genoa. He wrote easily in Latin, was considered a fine organist, and was the author of Della statua, De Pictura, and De re aedificatoria . His importance, not only in the fifteenth century but also in the following centuries, may be partially measured by the fact that all his books went into many editions, while the De re aedificatoria, one of the monuments of architectural literature, was translated into Italian, English, French, Spanish, and German. Note: p22.f1 It was first printed by Alemanus in Florence in 1485. This translation into Italian by Cosimo Bartoli (ca.1503-ca.1572), an Italian architect and scholar, was first published in 1550.
There are two illustrations in the book which may have had some influence on Jefferson. The first is an arcade which, in its simple form, may have helped to suggest the simplicities of the arcades on the Ranges at the University of Virginia (see Plate IV), though the book was no longer in Jefferson's hands at the time he designed them. The second, taken from Book VII, whose title may be translated as "On Ornaments of Sacred Temples," would have reinforced Jefferson's argument with his ornamentist, William Coffee, about the appropriateness of ornament in domestic and public use (see Plate v). Note: p24.f2
Sowerby points out that Jefferson paid "4." (dollars?) for his own copy, which Kimball says was purchased between 1785 and 1789 (p. 92). That copy was sold to Congress. The book was not ordered for the University. The present copy in the library is the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
M *NA2515.A33.1565 Sowerby 4199
THE / ELEMENTS / OF / CIVIL ARCHITECTURE, / ACCORDING TO/Vitruvius and other Ancients,/AND THE/MOST APPROVED PRACTICE OF MODERN AUTHORS, / ESPECIALLY PALLADIO. / BY HENRY ALDRICH, D. D. / FORMERLY DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH. / TRANSLATED BY / THE REV. PHILIP SMYTH, LL. B. / FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE. / SECOND EDITION.
/ OXFORD, /
PRINTED BY W. BAXTER, / FOR J. PARKER: / MESSRS. PAYNE AND FOSS, PALL MALL; AND MESSRS. LAW AND / WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE, LONDON. / 1818.
8vo. Engraved portrait ( [ii] ); title page ( [iii] ); preface to 2d ed. ( [v]-vi ); note ( [vii]-viii ); introduction by Philip Smyth (1-75); First Part of text ([77]-124); Second Part of text (125-51); 55 engraved plates.
Inscribed on page v: 'University Library / June 1840/ John Beaford / London.'
Of Henry Aldrich (1647-1710), who was born at Westminster and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, his translator says in his introduction: The Author of the ensuing Elements died Dean of Christ Church in 1710. . . . [In Italy] he became impassioned for Architecture and Music. . That the impression was not merely local and momentary, his executed designs Note: p26.f1 in the one, and his yet daily recited compositions Note: p26.f2 in the other, would enable his historian to prove . . . the suavity of his manners, the hilarity of his conversation, the variety and excellence of his talents, in conjunction with a fine person, conciliated and attached all committed to his superintendence to such a degree, that his latest surviving disciples, of the first rank, have been seen unable to speak, recollectedly, of their intercourse with him, without the tenderest indications of affection to his memory . . . in favour of the few, whose happier fortunes permit them to join elegant with solid information, he compiled the rudiments of Architecture now offered to the public. [Pp.73-74]
Aldrich says that he wrote for students who might follow "this study from particular inclination . . . and [I] shall so explain to him the language and most approved precepts of Architecture, that he may either rest satisfied with my instructions, to be able by his own application to study my omissions" (p. 78).
Aldrich's original scheme was for the volume to be divided into two parts, each having three books: "The first book will contain general rules: the second will speak of public and private edifices: the third of the ornaments of building; the fourth will describe fortification: the fifth naval Architecture: the sixth instruments of war" (p. 78). In this edition, however, only the first two books were printed. They are as described above, the first part basing its rules on the tripartite admonition for utility, strength, and beauty and the second part expanded to include descriptions of those buildings illustrated, among which are some by Bramante, Raphael, Romano, Peruzzi, Palladio, and Vignola.
A copy of this book was presented by Joseph Coolidge to Jefferson for the library at the University, as listed in the Kean catalogue; it disappeared, however, and was replaced in 1840 by the present volume.
U. Va. *NA2515.A4.1818
Vol. I. LE RIVOLUZIONI / DEL / TEATRO MUSICALE / ITA- LIANO / DALLA SUA ORIGINE FINO AL PRESENTE / OPERA / DI STEFANO ARTEAGA / MADRIDENSE / TOMO PRIMO. / Il faut se rendre a ce Palais magique, / Ou les beaux hers, la dance, la musique, / L'art de tromper les yeux par les couleurs, / L'art plus heureux de seduire les coeurs, / De cent plaisirs font an plaisir unique.
/ BOLOGNA MDCCLXXXIII / Per la Stamperia di Carlo Trenti all' Insegna / di Sant' Antonio. / Con licenza de' Superiori.
Small 8vo. Title page ([i]); dedication (iii-x); note (xi); table of contents (xii-xiv); license (1 leaf); text (1-411); errata (1 leaf).
Vol. II. LE RIVOLUZIONI / . . . / MADRIDENSE / TOMO SECONDO. / BOLOGNA MDCCLXXXV. / . . .
Small 8vo. Title page ([iii]); dedication (v-xii); table of contents ( xiii-xiv); license (1 leaf); text (1-207).
Vol. III. LE RIVOLUZIONI / . . . / MADRIDENSE / TERZO ED ULTIMO TOMO / Arricchito delle Repliche fatte alle / Osservazioni dell' AUTORE INTORNO / AD UN'Estratto del Tomo II. / BOLOGNA MDCCLXXXVIII / ....
Small 8vo. Title page ([iii]); dedication (v-ix); note (x-xii); errata (xiv); imprimatur (unnumbered p.); half title (1 leaf); folded leaf of music; text ([1]-216).
Esteban Arteaga (1747-99), a Spanish Jesuit, emigrated to Italy on the suppression of his order. He went later to Paris where he died. He wrote, in addition to the Rivoluzioni, the Investigaciones filosoficas sabre la belleza ideal (Madrid, 1789) and Dell' influenza degli Arabi sulk origine delta poesia moderna in Europa (Rome, 1791) .
The first edition of the Rivoluzioni was issued in 1783 in two volumes. It was later expanded into three, and letters on the subject by François Arnaud (1721-84) and Vicenzo Manfredini (1737-99) were included. The first volume discusses such subjects as the nature of musical drama, the origins of sacred music, profane music, opera seria, and opera buffo, the progress of melody, and the introduction of eunuchs into music, as well as giving a survey of the Italian musical scene. The second volume discusses the decadence of Italian opera, the causes lying in the vanity and ignorance of the singers and the abandonment of musical poetry. The third volume is a continuation of the discussion in Vol. II and includes letters from Arnaud and Manfredini. The entire work has been called an acute and diligent book.
Jefferson owned and sold to Congress the three-volume edition of Arteaga which was published in Venice in 1785, but the date of purchase is not known. He ordered all three volumes for the University, in the section on "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" of the want list, but only two were received and these have not survived. The library's present set, with the volumes dated 1783, 1785, and 1788, is a recent acquisition, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U. Va. M *ML1733.3.A7.1783 Sowerby 4256
A / DISSERTATION / ON THE / CONSTRUCTION AND PROPERTIES / OF / ARCHES. / BY / G. ATWOOD, ESQ. F.R.S.
/ LONDON: / PRINTED BY W. BULMER AND CO. / CLEVELAND-ROW, ST. JAMES'S. / FOR LUNN, OXFORD-STREET, AND EGERTON, WHITEHALL. / 1801.
4to. Title page ([i]); preface ([iii]-viii); text ([1]-51); 6 folding engraved plates (Plate VI, of a total of 7 plates, is missing).
George Atwood (1746-1807), a mathematician, was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Oxford.
He gives a clear account of the geometrical and trigonometrical approach to his book and an equally clear account of the bases on which the book is grounded:
An arch being formed ( according to the usual modes of construction ) by the apposition of wedges, or sections of a wedge-like form, the properties of arches seem to be naturally derived from those of the wedge, on which principle the inquiries in the ensuing Tract are founded.
By considering the subject on this ground, it appears that the theory of arches may be inferred from geometrical construction, depending only on the known properties of the wedge and other elementary laws of mechanics, without having recourse to the more abstruse branches of geometry in explaining this practical subject, to which a more direct and obvious method of inference seems better adapted. [P. iii]
In the course of this inquiry, exclusive of the general principles which have been here described, sundry other properties are investigated, which, it is presumed, may be of use in the practice of architecture, in the construction of arches of every kind, as well as in explaining some particulars relating to the subject, which have not hitherto been accounted for in a satisfactory manner. [P. v]
The object of the ensuing tract appears to consist principally in the solutions of two statical problems, which may be briefly expressed in the following terms: 1st, from having given the angles contained by the sides of the wedges which form an arch, together with the weight of the highest or middle section, to infer the weights of the other sections; and conversely, from the weights of each wedge given, together with the angle of the first section, to determine the angles between the sides of the other sections, so as to form an arch perfectly balanced in all its parts. [P. 5]
In 1804 a supplement was "written at the request of a committee of the House of Commons, then engaged in considering Telford's plan for replacing London Bridge with a one-arched iron construction" (DNB) .
The copy now in the library lacks the 1804 supplement, as apparently did the copy received by Jefferson for the University, as shown in the Kean catalogue.
U. Va. *TG327.A88.1801
Vol. I. COMINCIAMENTO / E / PROGRESSO / DELL' ARTE DELL' INTAGLIARE IN RAME / COLLE VITE / Di molti de'più eccellenti Maestri / della stessa Professione/ OPERA /DI FILIPPO BALDINUCCI / FIORENTINO / ACCADEMICO DELLA CRUSCA / Con Annotazioni / DEL SIG. DOMENICO MARIA MANNI
/ MILANO / Dalla Società Tipografica de'Classici Italiani, / contrada di s. Margherita, No. 1118. / ANNO 1808.
8vo. Engraved portrait ([iv]); title page ([v]); editor's preface (vii-xii); author's preface (1-14); text (15-268); index (269-87); errata (unnumbered p.).
Vol. II. VOCABOLARIO TOSCANO / DELL' ARTE / DEL DISEGNO / DI / FILIPPO BALDINUCCI / FIORENTINO. / VOLUME PRIMO. /
8vo. Title page ([3]); dedication (5-8); preface (9-19); text (21-370); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
Vol. III. VOCABOLARIO TOSCANO / . . . / VOLUME SECONDO. / . . .
8vo. Title page ([3]); text (5-255); additions (257-69); lecture (271-319); letter (321-59); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
Vol. IV. NOTIZIE / DE' PROFESSORI DEL DISEGNO/DA CIMABUE IN QUA/ OPERA /DI FILIPPO BALDINUCCI/ FIORENTINO / ACCADEMICO DELLA CRUSCA / CON NOTE ED AGGIUNTE.
8vo. Title page ([iii]); editor's note (v-viii); dedication (ix-xii); author's note (xiii-xxxii); text (1-541); index (543-82); errata (1 unnumbered p. ) .
Vol. V. NOTIZIE / .
8vo. Title page ([3]); publisher's note (5-9); text (11-528); index (529-45); errata (547)
Vol. VI. NOTIZIE / . .
8vo. Title page ([3]); note by Giuseppe Piacenza (5-13); text (15-403); index (405-16); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
Vol. VII. NOTIZIE /;
8vo. Title page ( [3] ); text (5-642); index (643-62); errata (663) .
Vol. VIII. NOTIZIE / .
8vo. Title page ( [3] ); text (5-570); notes (571); index (573-90); errata (1 unnumbered p. ) .
Vol. IX. NOTIZIE / . . . / ANNO 1812.
8vo. Title page ([3]); text ([5]-568); index (569-81); errata (583).
Vol. X. NOTIZIE / .
8vo. Title page ( [3] ); text (5-478); index (479-86); errata (487) .
Vol. XI. NOTIZIE / .
8vo. Title page ([3]); text (5-495); index (497-512); errata (1 unnumbered p. ) .
Vol. XII. NOTIZIE / .
8vo. Title page ([3]); text (5-491); index (493-98); errata (499).
Vol. XIII. NOTIZIE / . .
8vo. Title page ( [3] ); text ( 5-521 ); index ( 52 30 ); errata (531).
Vol. XIV. NOTIZIE / . .
8vo. Title page ([3]); dedication (5-8); text (g-298); index (299-312); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
Filippo Baldinucci (1624-96) was born at Florence. He was a writer on the history of the arts, but he had the fault of attempting to derive all Italian art from the schools of Florence.
This edition is the first collected edition of his works. Volume I treats of the lives of engravers from all countries and contains 157 entries; Vol. II is the first part of a dictionary of the terms used in pictorial design, from Ab to Nu; Vol. III contains the continuation of the dictionary from Ob to Zu, a section of additions from A to V and ends with a lecture Baldinucci gave at the Accademia della Crusca on December 29, 1690, and January 5, 1691; Vols. IV-XIV contain essays on the works of various artists, some few by other authors. These last volumes are not very well arranged, for they are not alphabetical internally or from volume to volume. There are no illustrations in the set beyond the initial portrait.
This is a set that was already in the library in the spring of 1825 when Jefferson was making up his want list.
U. Va. *N27.B2.1808
An Essay on the Strength and Stress of Timber. 2d ed.
London, 1818.
Not now owned by the University.
The University only has the third edition of this work, whereas Jefferson presumably ordered the second edition. The third edition (of 1826) contains 6 engraved plates, all folding and dated August 12, 1817, 250 pages of text, and an appendix of 55 pages. Interestingly enough, there are also 26 pages of advertisements.
Peter Barlow (1776-1862), born at Norwich, was largely self- taught. He kept a school, attained a considerable degree of scientific knowledge, and eventually taught at the Royal Military Academy. He was elected F.R.S. in 1823 and was an honorary member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and the Society of Civil Engineers.
His first book was An Elementary Investigation of the Theory of Numbers, 1811; his second A New Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary, 1814; and his third was this book, first issued in 1817. Its second edition was in 1818, the edition of 1826 was the third, and it went into its sixth edition in 1867.
In his text Barlow examines previous theories of strength and stress, experiments most carefully, then sets up new theories based on his experiments. He seems to have been one of the first to pronounce theories of the strength of materials based on sufficient and valid experiments. One should note, too, his early interest in iron as a structural material.
The third edition, with its preface dated January 16, 1826, was issued after Jefferson's list was made up and may well not have been available in this country until after Jefferson's death. Since Jefferson normally wanted the latest edition of a work, it may be assumed that it was the second edition of 1818 which he ordered for the University, in the section on "Technical Arts" of the want list. There is no record of the library's having acquired any edition in Jefferson's lifetime.
U. Va. [*TA405.B3.1826]
Bartoli, Pietro Santi.
See La Chausse, Michel Ange de (No. 64).
DICTIONNAIRE / DES GRAVEURS / ANCIENS ET MODERNES / DEPUIS L'ORIGINE DE LA GRAVEUR; / AVEC / UNE NOTICE /DES PRINCIPALES ESTAMPES/ Qu'ils ont gravées. / SUIVI / Des Catalogues des OEuvres de Jacques / Jordans, & de Corneille Visscher. /Par F. BASAN, Graveur. / PREMIERE PARTIE.
/ A PARIS, / Chez / DE LORMEL, rue de Foin. / SAILLANT, rue S. Jean de Beauvais. / VEUVE DURAND, rue des Noyers. /DURAND NEVEU, rue S. Jacques. / DESSAINT, rue du Foin. / M.DCC.LXVII. / Avec Approbation & Privilege du Roi.
12mo. Half title (1 leaf); title page (1 leaf); note (i-iv); dictionary, 1St part (1-342+, since the pagination 245-64 appears twice); [Half title for 2d part missing;] dictionary, 2d part (343-572); supplement (573-92); errata, 1St part (1 leaf ); errata, 2d part (1 leaf ); [new pagination;] supplement (1-192); index (193-227). (The catalogues are missing.)
Pierre François Basan (1723-97), French, studied under Etienne Fessard and J. Daullé. He was an engraver and a seller of prints and objets d'art. Of his more than 1,200 plates it is said that "la valeur . . . est mediocrement cotée.&rquo;
He says he will be "trop heureux si les soins que je me suis donné pour parvenir à mon but, peuvent procurer aux Amateurs quelques-unes des connoissances qui sont l'objet de leurs recherches" (pp. ii-iii). He describes the structure of his work: "L'Ouvrage est divisé en deux Volumes, & un toisieme faisant suite & contenant seul le Catalogue de l'OEuvre de P. P. Rubens, d'une édition beaucoup plus ample & plus correct que celui qui en avoit été publié en 1751, par le sieur Hecquet" (p. iv).
The dictionary was first published in 1767, again in a very much more handsome edition in 1789, and finally in 1809.
Jefferson ordered the 1767 edition for the University, in the section on "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" of the- want list, contrary to his usual practice of buying the latest edition. It was in the library by 1828, but it has not survived. The recently acquired copy the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, is still missing the catalogues of Jordans and Vischer.
U. Va. *NE800.B3.l767
Neue Garten und Landschafts-Gebaüde
. Leipzig: Voss und Cie., 1798-99
Not now owned by the University.
Sowerby, who had no opportunity to examine a copy, describes the book as a folio volume with four parts and thirty-four plates. She gives the date of purchase by Jefferson for his own library as June 21, 1805, its price as $17.00, and the cost of its binding at $2.00.
Although references to Becker are few, Sowerby says he was a German landscape artist and antiquarian.
Jefferson, in a study of garden pavilions with notes (Kimball, Fig. 164 and N-182), cites the Becker work: "Chinese model. wood Becker pl. 10-a." The Chinese designs in the book were drawn by the architect Schffer and included detailed explanations.
Jefferson's French title, "Becker. Plans d'architecture," is not on the book, but that this was the book ordered for the University, in the section on "Architecture" of the want list, seems certain from Jefferson's use of the same title for the copy of the same work that he sold to Congress. No record of its receipt at the library during his lifetime exists.
U. Va. M Sowerby 4223
The / CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, / in the State of Pennsylvania / North America; / as it appeared in the Year 1800/ consisting of TWENTY EIGHT Plates / Drawn and Engraved by W. BIRCH & SON.
/ Published by W. Birch, Springfield Cot, near Nethaminy Bridge on the Bristol Road, Pennsylvania. Decr. 31St. 1800.
Folio. Engraved frontispiece (1 leaf); engraved title page (1 leaf); 28 engraved plates; list of subscribers (1 unnumbered p.).
The University owns a microprint copy only.
William Birch (1755-1834) was born in Warwickshire and educated in Bristol and London. In England he exhibited miniatures at the Royal Academy, in 1785 received a medal from the Society of Arts, and published a series of views called Delices de la Grande Bretagne (London, 1789). Emigrating to this country in 1794, he worked on the City of Philadelphia between 1798 and 1800 and included in it a series of views of the city and of its prominent buildings. He published a view of New York in 1803, issued a series of plates of American country seats in 1808, and executed a number of miniatures.
On the page of subscribers for the City of Philadelphia he says:
The price of the Work, in boards, is 28 Dollars; bound, 31 dollars; if coloured, in boards, 41~ Dollars; bound, 445 Dollars. Also may be had, a large Print of the Frontispiece, 251,4 inches by 2134 engraved in an elegant and bold style, for the purpose of framing: Price 6 Dollars plain, and g coloured. A companion to which is now engraving, to be the City of New-York, which will, together compose an elegant pair of Prints of the two principal Cities of North-America.
The list of subscribers includes "Thomas Jefferson, Vice-President of U. States" and "Mr. B. Henry Latrobe, Richmond, Virginia."
Jefferson's own copy was sold to Congress. The work was not ordered for the University.
M Sowerby 4161
Vol. I. IL / RIPOSO / DI / RAFFAELLO BORGHINI. / VOLUME PRIMO.
/ MILANO / Dalla Societ Tipografica DE'CLASSICI ITALIANI, / contrada di s. Margherita, No. 1118. / ANNO 1807.
8vo. Half title ([i]); title page ([iii]); foreword (v-ix); preface by Monsignor Bottari (xi-xxiv); text (1-288); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
Vol. II. IL / RIPOSO / . . . / VOLUME SECONDO. / . . .
8vo. Half title ([1]); title page ([3]); text (5-261); errata and notes (1 leaf).
Vol. III. IL / RIPOSO / . . . / VOLUME TERZO. / . . .
8vo. Half title ([1]); title page ([3]); text (5-234); index (235-58); errata (1 unnumbered p. ).
Raffaello Borghini (1541-88) was born in Florence. He wrote comedies such as the Diana pietosa , 1585, as well as Il Riposa , which was first issued in 1584.
Il Riposo , concerning Italian artists, was partially drawn from Vasari (No. 122) and B. Varchi, but it has, in addition, interesting information on Florentine mannerism. It is a work in four books bound in three volumes, printed partly because of "la squisitezza della lingua," as the publisher says.
Although a set was in the University's library before Jefferson made up his want list and was well identified in the 1828 Catalogue , that set did not survive. It has recently been replaced by the present set, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U. Va. *N7420.B7.1807
DESCRIPTION / DES BEAUTÉS / DE GENES / ET DE SES ENVIRONS / Ornée de differentes Vuës, / de tailles douce, et de la Carte / Topographique de la Ville.
/ A GENES MDCCLXXXI / CHEZ YVES GRAVIER / Libraire sous la Loge des Banquie.
12mo. Engraved, folding map; title page (1 leaf); preface (1-2); text, with 20 engraved plates, of which 17 are folding, inserted (3-138); index (139-42); list of plates (1 unnumbered p.).
Fifteen of the folding plates are surprisingly vigorous views of Genoa engraved by Guidotti (see Plate VI), and the other two are maps. The three single-page plates, presumably by another hand, are of Genoese costumes and are more hackneyed than the plates of views. One of the maps is labeled in Italian.
Practically nothing is known of Giacomo Brusco. He wrote this handsome guide with its interesting views of the city and its buildings because "le grand nombre de Morceaux de peinture, de sculpture, & d'architecture, que j'ai vus dans cette superbe Ville, & qui ne sont pas assez connus, m'a fait naître l'idée d'en dresser un mémoire, que je crois devoir rendre public" (p. 1).
Although Jefferson visited Genoa during April 1787, the date of his purchase of this book is not known. His copy was sold to Congress. It was not ordered for the University. The library's present copy is the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
ll be fully explained, and in so regular a Method too, that it can hardly be in the Power even of a Novice to mistake. Neither is it impossible that the most finished Artist, or most perfect Critick, should stand in need of its Help: It will serve, at least, as a kind of Remembrancer, or Common Place-Book, where all their Knowledge lies regularly digested, and may be referred to with Ease and Pleasure.
To do this more effectually, all the valuable Authors which have wrote on the Subject have been examin'd, consulted, and reduced into Method and Consistency with each other: We may quote a great Variety of eminent Names; but as Le Clerc has been referred to the most, we shall content ourselves with his Authority only, and recommend the Steps he, in particular, has pointed out, The steps pointed out are arithmetic, geometry, masonry, leveling, hydraulics, mechanics, sketching, drawing, and the "Science of Designing." See Le Clerc (No. 69). as the surest Methods to attain to any Degree of Perfection in this Art. . . .
But though Genius cannot be learn'd, it may be improv'd: And though the Gift of Designing is born with a Man, it may be methodized by Study and Observation. The principal Points, therefore, that the Designer should have in view, are first Convenience, . . . and then Beauty and Magnificence. . .
SIMPLICITY is generally understood to be the Groundwork of Beauty, and Decoration of Magnificence.
Entries in the Dictionary often run to several pages, as in the case of that for Water, which is thirty-eight pages long, or sometimes are comparatively simple, as follows: RULE of THREE RULE of PROPORTION commonly call'd the GOLDEN RULE is a Rule which teaches how to find a fourth Proportional Number to three others given.
Sowerby points out that Kimball (on p. 134) proves that Jefferson used this book before 1771. Jefferson sold his own copy to Congress and then ordered this book for the University in the section on &ldquo"Architecture"&rdquo of the want list. Though not directly associated with Jefferson, the library's present copy is from the books of Joseph C. Cabell, one of the original Visitors of the University, and is thus intimately associated with the beginnings of the University.
M *DG632.B7.1781 Sowerby 3910
| MASONS, | | | PLAISTERERS, | | | TURNERS, |
| CARPENTERS, | | | PAINTERS, | | | CARVERS, |
| JOINERS, | | | GLAIZIERS, | | | STATUARIES, |
| BRICKLAYERS, | | | SMITHS, | | | PLUMBERS &c. |
Vol. II. THE / Builder's Dictionary / . . . / Vol. II / . .
8vo. Endorsement (1 leaf); title page (1 leaf); text with numerous woodcut figures (see Plate VII) and 18 engraved plates inserted (247 leaves and 1 unnumbered p. ); advertisement ( 1 unnumbered p.); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
The endorsement says: January ll. 1731/4. We have perused these Two Volumes of the Builder's Dictionary, and do think they contain a great deal of useful Knowledge in the Building Business.
While the title page describes the contents of the book, the preface contains much sound advice and is certainly worthy of the endorsement of Hawksmoor, James (see No. 37), and Gibbs (Nos. 48, 49a, and 49b):
Architecture is one of those Arts which Necessity has made universal: From the Time that Men first felt the Inclemencies of the Seasons, it had its Beginning; and accordingly it has spread wheresoever the Severities of the Climate demanded Shelter or Shade....
As Distress was the Parent of it, so Convenience was the first Object it regarded: Mangificence and Decoration were the Result of long Refinement, and designed to flatter the Ostentation of the Owners....
'Tis easy to conclude from hence, That Convenience should still be the Builder's first View: Every Structure is raised to answer some particular End; and the most obvious and simple Means are always the best to obtain it, . . . Many an excellent Workman has proved himself a mere Mechanick, and many a surprising Genius, that he was ignorant of the very Principles of the Art he made it his Profession to understand. To make a thorough Master, both must be united; for the Propriety of a Plan is seldom attended to, and seldomer understood; and a glaring Pile of beauty, without Use, but mocks the Possessor with a Dream of Grandeur he can never enjoy.
The Design of this DICTIONARY is chiefly, for the Assistance of such, who study the Mechanical Part of Building, and will be of the greatest Service to all Professions that have any Relation to it: The Elements of the Art will be fully explained, and in so regular a Method too, that it can hardly be in the Power even of a Novice to mistake. Neither is it impossible that the most finished Artist, or most perfect Critick, should stand in need of its Help: It will serve, at least, as a kind of Remembrancer, or Common Place-Book, where all their Knowledge lies regularly digested, and may be referred to with Ease and Pleasure.
To do this more effectually, all the valuable Authors which have wrote on the Subject have been examin'd, consulted, and reduced into Method and Consistency with each other: We may quote a great Variety of eminent Names; but as Le Clerc has been referred to the most, we shall content ourselves with his Authority only, and recommend the Steps he, in particular, has pointed out, The steps pointed out are arithmetic, geometry, masonry, leveling, hydraulics, mechanics, sketching, drawing, and the "Science of Designing." See Le Clerc (No. 69). as the surest Methods to attain to any Degree of Perfection in this Art. . . .
But though Genius cannot be learn'd, it may be improv'd: And though the Gift of Designing is born with a Man, it may be methodized by Study and Observation. The principal Points, therefore, that the Designer should have in view, are first Convenience, . . . and then Beauty and Magnificence. . .
SIMPLICITY is generally understood to be the Groundwork of Beauty, and Decoration of Magnificence.
Entries in the Dictionary often run to several pages, as in the case of that for Water, which is thirty-eight pages long, or sometimes are comparatively simple, as follows: RULE of THREE RULE of PROPORTION commonly call'd the GOLDEN RULE is a Rule which teaches how to find a fourth Proportional Number to three others given.
Sowerby points out that Kimball (on p. 134) proves that Jefferson used this book before 1771. Jefferson sold his own copy to Congress and then ordered this book for the University in the section on &ldquo"Architecture"&rdquo of the want list. Though not directly associated with Jefferson, the library's present copy is from the books of Joseph C. Cabell, one of the original Visitors of the University, and is thus intimately associated with the beginnings of the University.
U.Va. M *NA31.B82.1734 Sowerby 4187
Builder's Price Book. The Builder's Price-Book .... 5th ed., corrected. London, 1788.
The University does not own the fifth edition of this book but has recently acquired a copy of the sixth edition.
THE / BUILDER'S / PRICE-BOOK; / CONTAINING / A CORRECT LIST OF THE PRICES / ALLOWED BY THE MOST EMINENT / SURVEYORS IN LONDON, / TO THE SEVERAL / ARTIFICERS CONCERNED IN BUILDING; / INCLUDING/ THE JOURNEYMEN'S PRICES. / THE SIXTH EDITION, / CORRECTED. / BY AN EXPERIENCED SURVEYOR.
Small 8vo. Title page (1 leaf); foreword (1 unnumbered p.); table of contents (1 unnumbered p.); text ([1]-176); [new pagination:] catalogue of books ([1]-8).
Although Sowerby had no copy of the fifth edition for examination, she describes it as a small quarto of eighty-three leaves; as having been entered in Jefferson's undated manuscript catalogue with no price, as having been bound for Jefferson during August 1805, and as having been printed for I. and J. Taylor. Its original price was 2.6. sewed.
The editor says of his book in his foreword to the sixth edition: The increased reputation which each impression of this work has experienced, particularly the last, (the whole being sold within a few months) tends more to evince its real utility, than any words possibly can; at the same time, it affords the most pleasing reflection to the Proprietors, that the attention paid to the addition of new articles, the correcting of old ones, and carefully examining every reprinting, has been rewarded with the satisfaction of the Public.
It is hoped, the favourable opinions already obtained, will at least be continued, if not increased, by the present corrected edition.
Prices are for units of work for blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, carvers, gilders, glaziers, joiners, masons, painters, pavers, "Plaisterers," plumbers, sawyers, and slaters. These are given in a series of tables with the prices for the work, at various levels of skill, for each trade.
The catalogue of books at the end of the sixth edition ("Catalogue of Modern Books on Architecture, &c.") lists fifty-nine titles from the Architectural Library at No. 56, Holborn.
Jefferson's copy of the fifth edition was sold to Congress. The book was not ordered for the University.
M [*TH435.B82.1788] Sowerby 1181
Builders' Prices. Builders' Prices, Philadelphia, Washington, and Pittsburgh. [Philadelphia?, ca.1815-26.] Not now owned by the University.
The secrecy which surrounded price books and their destruction through use in computing their owners' estimates make them some of the most difficult of books to find. Their use, however, was widespread. In a letter of January 26, 1819, now in the University collection, from Alexander Garrett to Jefferson, it is stated, for example, that James Dinsmore agreed to work by Latrobe's price book.
This title, otherwise identified only as an octavo, is from the 1829 sale catalogue, lot 243, and was in Jefferson's library at the time of his death. It was not ordered for the University.
M
THE / PRESENT STATE / OF / MUSIC / IN / FRANCE and ITALY: / OR, / The JOURNAL of a TOUR through those / Countries, undertaken to collect Materials for / A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC. / By CHARLES BURNEY, Mus D. /
Ei cantarono allor si dolcemente, / Che la dolcezza ancor dentro mi suona. / DANTE, Purg. Canto 2do. / LONDON, / Printed for T. BECKET and Co. in the Strand. / MDCCLXXI.
8vo. Title page (I); explication of some musical terms, etc. (iii-vii); introduction (1-8); text (9-369); index (5 leaves); advertisement (1 unnumbered p.); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
Charles Burney (1726-1814) grew up at Shrewsbury under the care of an old nurse. He was later educated at the free school in Chester, then studied music with his elder brother James at Shrewsbury. In London he continued his musical studies under Arne. He later became a well-known London figure, a critic and composer, and a lively and busy man. He was elected F.R.S. in 1773.
He began his journey to Italy "in the beginning of June 1770." In his introduction he states most clearly the reasons for writing his book:
Among the numerous accounts of Italy, published by travelers who have visited that delightful country, from different motives of interest or curiosity; it is somewhat extraordinary [sic] that none have hitherto confined their views and researches to the rise and progress, or present state of music in that part of the world, where it has been cultivated with such success.
In hopes, therefore, of stamping on my intended history some marks of originality, or at least of novelty, I determined to allay my thirst of knowledge at the source, and take such draughts in Italy, as England cannot supply. It was there I determined to hear with my own ears, and to see with my own eyes; and, if possible, to hear and see nothing but music.
Dr. Burney describes his musical experiences under the headings of the various localities where they occurred and in the order of his arrival at the various towns.
Sowerby points out that Jefferson met Burney in London and, in 1786, asked him to supervise the making of a harpsichord ("mahogany, solid not veneered, without any inlaid work"). Burney was delighted to execute the commission, and Jefferson, in thanking him, spoke of "the reading of your account of the state of music in Europe" (Sowerby 4254).
Jefferson ordered the work for the University, in the section on "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" of the want list, without specifying whether he wanted this edition or a second one, of 1773 (No. 18b). Although neither edition was received, it may be presumed that he would have preferred that of 1773. Nevertheless it was a copy of the edition, the first, that he sold to Congress.
The library's present copies of both editions are in the Mackay-Smith Collection.
U. Va.? M *ML195.B96.1771 Sowerby 4253
THE / PRESENT STATE / OF MUSIC / . . . / THE SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED. / . . .
/ Printed for T. BECKET and Co. Strand; J. ROBSON, New Bond-Street, and G. ROBINSON, Paternoster-Row, 1773
8vo. Advertisements (i-ii); title page (iii); explication of some musical terms, etc. (v-viii); introduction (1-8); text (9-409); index, with errata at bottom of last page (5 leaves).
For information about Charles Burney and general information about the book, see No. 18a. This, the second edition, seems to have been reset and is slightly expanded from the first. The original errata have been corrected, but some new ones have crept in.
U. Va.? *ML195.B96.1773
Vol. I. THE / PRESENT STATE / OF / MUSIC / IN / GERMANY, / THE NETHERLANDS, / AND / UNITED PROVINCES. / OR, / The JOURNAL of a TOUR through those / Countries, undertaken to collect Materials for / A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC. / By CHARLES BURNEY, Mus. D. F.R.S. / IN TWO VOLUMES. / VOL. I. /
Auf Virtuosen sen stolz, Germanien, die du gezeuget; / In Frankreich und Welschland sind grosere nicht. /Zacharia . / THE SECOND EDITION CORRECTED.
/ LONDON, / Printed for T. BECKET, Strand; J. ROBSON, New Bond-/Street; and G. ROBINSON, Paternoster-Row. 1775.
8vo. Title page (I); introduction (iii-viii); text (1-372); index (373-80).
Vol. II. THE / PRESENT STATE / OF / MUSIC / IN / GERMANY, / . . . / VOL. II / . . .
8vo. Title page (1 leaf); advertisement (1 unnumbered p.); proposals for printing by subscription a general history of music (1 unnumbered p.); text (1-344); index (345-52).
For information about Dr. Burney and his relationship with Jefferson, see No. 18a.
This present work was written almost as a continuation of the preceding volume. Burney says, as I have, in a late publication, endeavored to do justice to the talents and attainments of the present musicians of France and Italy, I shall now make the same attempt, with respect to those of Germany, hoping that the testimony of one who has himself been witness of the particulars he relates, will have a weight which integrity itself cannot give to hear-say evidence, and that the mind of the reader will be more entertained, in proportion as it is more satisfied of the truth of what is written. For if knowledge be medicine for the soul, according to the famous inscription on the Egyptian Library, it seems as much to concern us to obtain it genuine, as to procure unadulterated medicine for the body. [P. iv]
Though Italy has carried vocal music to a perfection unknown in any other country, much of the present excellence of instrumental is certainly owing to the natives of Germany, as wind and keyed instruments have never, perhaps in any age or country, been brought to a greater degree of refinement, either in construction or use, than by the modern Germans. [Pp. vi-vii]
This work follows the same organization as that on France and Italy. It was first published in 1773.
Jefferson ordered the work for the University, in the section on "Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" of the want list, without specifying the edition, though his general instructions to Hilliard would certainly have produced the corrected edition if they had produced either. No copy of this, however, is known to have been acquired in Jefferson's lifetime. The copy Jefferson sold Congress was the 1773 edition. The library's present copy of the 1775 edition is in the Mackay-Smith Collection.
U. Va.? M [1773] *ML195.963.1775 Sowerby 4254
A / SPECIMEN / OF / Printing Types, / BY / W. Caslon and Son, / Letter Founders, / London.
/ Printed by JOHN TOWERS, / MDCCLXIV.
Small 8vo. Engraved portrait added; title page (1 leaf ); text (37 leaves).
William Caslon (1692-1766) was born in Worcestershire. Apprenticed to an engraver of gun locks and barrels there, he set up shop in 1716 in London, where he began cutting type punches at the request of John Watts, the printer. Watts then backed a small foundry for Caslon where he cut type in the "English Arabic," pica roman, italic, Hebrew, and Coptic. From 1742 he worked with his son William (1720-78) . The firm was continued by William II's wife after his death, and by their two sons, William III and Henry. William III removed to Sheffield, where his new firm, later known as Stephenson, Blake, and Co., has had a very long life. Henry's firm, under the later name of A. W. Caslon and Co., has had an equally long tenure.
The book of type samples ranges from a very clear Roman to a series of non-Roman alphabets-Greek, Hebrew, Coptic. "Aethiopick," Etruscan, Syriac, "Arabick," Armenian, Samaritan, and Saxon-as well as music and typographical ornaments.
Sowerby points out that Jefferson bought his copy at the sale of the library of the Rev. Samuel Henly in March 1785, a copy which must have been either the 1763 or 1764 edition, since it seems too early for the 1785 edition to have reached this country. Since Jefferson usually preferred a later edition, it is supposed that the 1764 edition would be the more suitable.
Jefferson's own copy was sold to the Library of Congress. It was not ordered for the University. The library's present copy is a gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
M? *Z250.C343.1764 Sowerby 1135
THE / VILLAS / OF THE / ANCIENTS / ILLUSTRATED. / BY / ROBERT CASTELL. /
Vos sapere & solos aio bene / vivere, quorum / Conspicitur nitidis fundata pecunia Villis. / Hor. / LONDON: / Printed for the AUTHOR. / MDCCXXVIII.
Folio. Title page ( 1 leaf ); dedication ( 1 leaf ); preface ( 1 leaf ); list of subscribers (1 leaf); text (1-128); index (1 leaf); 13 engraved plates, of which 6 are folding.
The engravers were P. Fourdrinier, who may be supposed to be either Paul or Pierre Fourdrinier (fl.1720-60), Paul being known as "Old" Fourdrinier and Pierre as "Young" Fourdrinier, both having worked in London; and G. King, who may be George King, an English engraver said to have flourished ca.1740, though that date seems a little late for this book.
The crafts or professions are not listed on the pages of subscribers, but a copy went to Paul Foudrinier and to a clergyman, and two copies to James Oglethorpe.
Very little is known about Robert Castell other than the evidence of this book. It has been lately established that he was not the German architect who settled in Ireland in the second decade of the eighteenth century under the name of Robert Castele, Castle, Cassel, or Cassels.
Castell says that he resolved to take for my Subject the Rules that were observed in the situating and disposing of the Roman Villas, . . . and to this End I have been at the Pains to peruse many ancient Authors, who have treated more at large of that Part, not the meanest of the Architect's Business.
Most of the Roman Writers upon Agriculture that are remaining, have thought fit, at the Beginning of their Works, to tell us what were to be consider'd in the Situation and Disposition of Villas. Cato, the eldest of them left the fewest Rules on that Head . . .; but Varro that was the next after him, has been more ample and judicious in his observations....
Pliny the Younger alone has exceeded Varro in this Particular; he has left us two Epistles, containing an exact Description of his Villas of Laurentinum and Tuscum , and tho' we find not in him any direct Rules for the Disposition of the Villa Urbana or Country House of Pleasure, yet he gives us to understand, that those Buildings were contriv'd according to the strictest. Rules of Art.... He speaks only of the Situation, and Disposition of those Buildings, knowing his Friends to whom he wrote, could not but be sensible that the Rules laid down by Vitruvius with respect to Beauty and Proportion were equally to take Place in the City and Country....
The whole Work consists of three Parts. The first contains the Description of a Villa Urbana , or Countrey House of Retirement near the City, that was supplied with most of the Necessaries of Life from a neighbouring Market-Town. The second sets forth the Rules that were necessary to be observed by an Architect, who had the Liberty to chuse a Situation, and to make a proper Distribution of all Things in and about the Villa ; but particularly with relation to the Farm-House, which in this Sort of Buildings, according to the more ancient Roman Manner, was always join'd to the Master's House, or but very little remov's from it. In the third Part is shewn the Description of another Villa Urbana , on a Situation very different from the former, with the Farm-House and its Appurtenances so far remov'd as to be no Annoyance to it, and at the same Time so near as to furnish it conveniently with all necessaries.
He also tells us that "the Antients esteem'd four Things essential to that of a good one [i.e., situation], viz. good Roads for themselves and Carriages, or the Conveniency of a navigable River; next, fertile Land to produce what was necessary for the Support of Man and Beast; wholesome Water; and, lastly, an healthy Air; which last-mentioned, as it immediately regarded the Life of the Inhabitant, was chiefly to be considered" (p. 17).
It is not known at what date this rather literary work, with its restorations based on ancient texts (see Plate VIII), came into Jefferson's hands. Sowerby suggests that he probably bought it in England, and Kimball (p. 92) states that he bought it between 1785 and 1789. His own copy was sold to Congress. Although it was ordered for the University in the section on ""Architecture" of the want list, there is no record of its having been acquired during Jefferson's lifetime. The present copy has come into the collection recently, the gift of an anonymous donor.
U.Va. M *NA324.C3.1728 Sowerby 419
Vol. I. VITA / DI / BENVENUTO CELLINI / OREFICE E SCULTORE FIORENTINO / DA LUI MEDESIMO SCRITTA / Nella quale si leggono molte importanti notizie / appartenenti alle Arti ed alla Storia del Secolo XVI. /
Ora per la prima volta ridotta a buona lezione / ed accompagnata con note / DA / GIO. PALAMEDE CARPANI. / MILANO / Dalla Società Tipografica de'Classici Italiani, / contrada di s. Margherita, No. 1118. / ANNO 1806.
8vo. Half title ([I]); engraved portrait of Cellini (ii); title page (iii); publisher's note (v); preface by Antonio Cocchi (vii-xxiv); letter of Cellini (xxv-xxvi); sonnet by Cellini (xxvii); note on Laurentian Ms. (xxviii); text (1-453); chronology (454-65); appendix (1 unnumbered p.).
Vol. II. VITA / DI / BENVENUTO CELLINI /.... / VOLUME II. /. . . / Contrada del Cappuccio. / ANNO 1811.
8vo. Engraved frontispiece ( Perseus ); half title ([I]); title page (iii); publisher's note (v); chronology (vii-xlvi); text (1-496); notes (497-502); emendation (1 unnumbered p.).
Vol. III. DUE TRATTATI / DI / BENVENUTO CELLINI / SCULTORE FIORENTINO / UNO / DELL' OREFICERIA / L'ALTRO /DELLA SCULTURA. /
Coll'aggianta di altre operette del medesimo. / MILANO. / Dalla Società Tipografica de'Classici Italiani / contrada del Cappuccio. / ANNO 1811.
8vo. Half title ([I]); title page (iii); publisher's note (v-viii); preface of Florence, 1731 edition (ix-xlvii); dedication (xlix-lii); prormeio (liii-lx); oreficeria (1-151); on sculpture (153-217); fragment on the art of drawing (219-29); letters, discourses, and poems (233-99); executed works of sculpture, etc. (300-310); travels (311-14); exploits (315-21); illnesses (322-23); index (324-417); errata (1 unnumbered p.).
Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), born in Florence, was apprenticed to Andrea di Sando Marcone, a goldsmith. He completed many important works both as goldsmith and sculptor in spite of his turbulent life. He wrote a treatise on sculpture and dictated his famous autobiography to a secretary. It was first printed in Italian in 1728, in English in 1771, in German in 1796, and in French in 1822.
The first two volumes of this edition, comprising the Vita, were edited by Gio. Palamede Carpani. The third volume includes the Due trattati as well as a series of miscellaneous works.
There was a set of this edition already in the University's collection when Jefferson made up his want list, but it subsequently disappeared.
It has been replaced in recent years by the present set, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U. Va. *NB623.C3.1806
DESIGNS / OF / CHINESE / BUILDING, / FURNITURE, DRESSES, / MACHINES, and UTENSILS. / Engraved by the Best Hands, / From the ORIGINALS drawn in CHINA / BY / Mr. CHAMBERS, Architect, / Member of the Imperial Academy of Arts at FLORENCE. / To which is annexed, / A DESCRIPTION of their TEMPLES, HOUSES, GARDENS, &c. /
LONDON: / Published for the AUTHOR, and sold by him next Door to Tom's Coffee-house, Russel-street, / Covent-Garden: Also by Mess. Dodsley, in Pall-mall; Mess. Wilson and Durham; / Mr. A. Millar, in the Strand, and Mr. R. Willock, in Cornhill. / MDCCLVII.
Folio. Title page (1 leaf); dedication (1 leaf); list of subscribers (leaf); preface (2 leaves); text (1-19); title page in French (1 leaf); dedication in French (1 leaf); preface in French (2 leaves); [new pagination:] text in French (1-19); 21 engraved plates.
The plates were engraved by P. Fourdrinier (see No. 21); J. Fougeron, an engraver in London whose first name was Ignace; Charles Grignion (1716-1810), who was born in London of French parents, did some work with Hogarth (No. 56), was a founder member of the Royal Academy, and had a son, also named Charles, who was an engraver as well; Edward Rooker (see No. 3); and P. Sandby, who may have been Paul (1725-1809) or Pierre (1732-1808).
Among the subscribers were architects, a "Bookseller at Bath," a builder, a carver, ecclesiastics, an engraver, the "Master of Perspective to HRH, Prince of Wales," a professor of moral philosophy, and a sculptor. Listed with the architects were John and James Adam, James Payne, and John Vardie. "J. Reinolds" was among the painters, and both Paul and Thomas Sandby were listed, Thomas being identified as "draughtsman to HRH, the Duke."
William Chambers (1726-96) was born at Stockholm where his grandfather was a prosperous English merchant. His father returned to England in 1728, but William, at sixteen, went to China with the Swedish East India Company, where he made a series of sketches which were later published in this book in 1757. At eighteen he went to Italy to study architecture and while in Rome lived with Charles-Louis Clérisseau (No. 29).
After his return to England he became architectural tutor to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George III), to whom this book is dedicated, a founding member and the first treasurer of the Royal Academy, and the comptroller of His Majesty's works. He was eventually knighted and was buried in Westminister Abbey, in the Poet's Corner. His books include, in addition to Designs for Chinese Buildings, the Treatise of Civil Architecture (1759; 2d ed., 1768; 3d ed., 1791); the Buildings at Kew , 1763 (No. 24); and the Dissertation on Oriental Gardening , 1772.
He introduces his Designs of Chinese Buildings by saying: I AM far from desiring to be numbered among the exaggerators of Chinese excellence . . . yet they must be allowed to claim our notice as a distinct and very singular race of men; as the inhabitants of a region divided by it's situation from all civilized countries; who have formed their own manners, and invented their own arts, without the assistance of example.... Our notions of their architecture are very imperfect . . . and no designs worth notice have yet been published.
THESE which I now offer the publick are done from sketches and measures taken by me at Canton some years ago, chiefly to satisfy my own curiosity. . . . Note: p54.n1
WHATEVER is really Chinese has at least the merit of being original: these people seldom or never copy or imitate the inventions of other nations . . . but their architecture has this farther advantage that there is a remarkable affinity between it and that of the antients, which is the more surprising as there is not the least probability that the one was borrowed from the other.
IN both the antique and Chinese architecture the general form of almost every composition has a tendency to the pyramidal figure: In both, columns are employed for support; and in both, these columns have diminution and bases, some of which bear a near resemblance to each other: fretwork, so common in the buildings of the antients, is likewise very frequent in those of the Chinese; . . . the Atrium, and the Monopteros and Prostyle temples, are forms of building that nearly resemble some used in China....
Though I am publishing a work of Chinese Architecture, let it not be suspected that my intention is to promote a taste so much inferior to the antique, and so very unfit for our climate: but a particular so interesting as the architecture of one of the most extraordinary nations in the universe cannot be a matter of indifference to a true lover of the arts, and an architect should by no means be ignorant of so singular a stile of building: at least the knowledge is curious, and on particular occasions may likewise be useful; as he may sometimes be obliged to make Chinese compositions, and at others it may be judicious in him to do so. For though, generally speaking, Chinese architecture does not suit European purposes; yet in extensive parks and gardens, where a great variety of scenes are required, or in immense palaces, containing a numerous series of apartments, I do not see the impropriety of finishing some of the inferiour ones in the Chinese taste. Variety is always delightful; and novelty, attended with nothing inconsistent or disagreeable, sometimes takes [the] place of beauty....
THE buildings of the Chinese are neither remarkable for magnitude or richness of materials; yet there is a singularity in their manner, a justness in their proportion, a simplicity, and sometimes even beauty, in their form, which recommend them to our notice. I look upon them as toys in architecture: and as toys are sometimes, on account of their oddity, prettyness, or neatness of workmanship, admitted into the cabinets of the curious, so may Chinese buildings be sometimes allowed a place among compositions of a nobler kind.[Preface]
This book (as well as Chambers's
Dissertation on Oriental Gardening ) was extremely influential in spreading a taste for things Chinese. Kimball (p. 126) states that Jefferson knew the book as early as 1771. It is supposed to have been a source for what Jefferson called "Chinese railings," and certainly Plates II, III, VI, and XI show railings which do relate to the ones he designed, the first three most closely (see Plates IX and X). Jefferson used the term on an early scheme for the pavilions at the University of Virginia (N-309), a drawing which may be dated before May 1817, as well as on subsequent drawings for the University.
Jefferson ordered the book for the University in the section on "Architecture" of the want list, but there is no record of its having been received by the library during his lifetime. The present copy was recently acquired, the gift of an anonymous donor. Jefferson's own copy was sold to Congress.
U.Va. M *DS708.C4.1757 Sowerby 4220
Plans, Elevations, / Sections, and Perspective Views / OF THE / GARDENS / AND / BUILDINGS / At KEW in SURRY, / The Seat of Her ROYAL HIGHNESS / The Princess Dowager of Wales. / BY / WILLIAM CHAMBERS, / MEMBER / Of the Imperial Academy of Arts at Florence, and of the Royal Academy of Architecture at Paris, / ARCHITECT / To the KING, and to Her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of WALES.
/ LONDON, / Printed by J. Haberkorn, in Grafton Street, St. Anne's Soho; / Published for the AUTHOR, / And to be had at his House in Poland Street; / Likewise of A. MILLAR, D. WILSON, and T. BECKET, all in the Strand; and of R. and J. DODSLEY / in Pall-Mall; R. SAYER in Fleet-Street, A. WEBLEY in Holborn, J. WALTER at Charing-/Cross, and Dorothy Mercier at the Golden Ball, Windmill Street, Golden Square. / MDCCLXIII.
Folio. Engraved frontispiece (1 leaf ); title page (1 leaf ); dedication (1 leaf); description of plates (1-8); 41 engraved plates, of which 2 are folding (2 of a total of 43 are missing).
The engravers were James Basire (see No. 3); Charles Grignion (see No. 23); Tobias Miller, or Mller (fl.1763-90), born in Nuremburg, but working in London where he had a brother, Johann Sebastian Miller, or Mller, also an engraver; James Noual; F. Patton (see No. 3); Edward Rooker (see No. 3); P. Sandby (see No. 23); and William Wollett (1735-85), of Dutch descent but English birth, who became engraver to the king in 1775.
The frontispiece, an allegory on architecture with the royal coronet, the Prince of Wales feather, and the badge of the Garter being used to form a kind of "Corinthian" capital, was drawn by William Hogarth (No. 56) and engraved by William Wollett. It was first used in Kirby's Perspective of Architecture , 1761 (No. 63).
For a note on Chambers, see No. 23. In 1762 Chambers built for Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, several temples and what were called "unmeaning falballas of Turkish and Chinese chequerwork" at Kew. Among these was the famous pagoda, which survives, and is illustrated in this work. Chambers had sketched in Canton and later published a Chinese pagoda in Plate I of his Designs of Chinese Buildings (No. 23).
He endorses this book by saying: "All the architectural designs and ornaments were done by me with the greatest care and accuracy, the figures drawn by Signor Cipriani, and the views by Messieurs [Jos.] Kirby [No. 63], Thomas Sandby, and [Wm.] Marlow, all of them excellent draftsmen. The whole work is engraved by the most eminent of our Artists."
Plate VIII of this work shows an elevation of a garden seat by William Kent, while Plate XXXIV shows its plan (see Plates XI and XII). These were copied in pen and ink and wash by Cornelia Jefferson Randolph while she was at Monticello with her grandfather Thomas Jefferson (see Plate XIII).
Many of the plates in this book are in the Chinese taste, especially Plates IX, XI, XV, XXIII, XXV, XXXII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, and XL, but Plate XV, "the House of Confucius," is especially good for railings and may have strengthened Jefferson's liking for this form. In addition, some of the plates show pavilions in a neoclassic manner.
Sowerby points out that Jefferson, on his visit to Kew, was primarily interested in the Archimedes screw for raising water and went so far as to illustrate it in his notes.
Jefferson's own copy of this work, which Kimball (p. 93) says was acquired before 1783, was sold to Congress. He ordered it for the University in the section on "Architecture" of the want list, but it has not sur- vived. It has recently been replaced by the present copy, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U.Va. M *NA7746.K4C4 1763 Sowerby 4225
Vol. I. [Engraved title page: ] HISTORY / of / Marine / ARCHITECTURE. / By John Charnock Esqr. FSA. / LONDON. / MDCCCI. Vol. I. [Printed title page: ] AN / HISTORY / OF / MARINE ARCHITECTURE. / INCLUDING AN /ENLARGED AND PROGRESSIVE VIEW / OF THE / NAUTICAL REGULATIONS AND NAVAL HISTORY, / BOTH CIVIL AND MILITARY, / OF ALL NATIONS, / ESPECIALLY OF GREAT BRITAIN; / DERIVED CHIEFLY FROM / Original Manuscripts, / AS WELL IN PRIVATE COLLECTIONS AS IN THE GREAT PUBLIC REPOSITORIES: / AND DEDUCED FROM/ THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. / IN THREE VOLUMES. / VOL. I. / By JOHN CHARNOCK, ESQ. F.S.A.
/ London: / Printed for R. FAULDER, Bond-street; G. G. and J. ROBINSON and Co. Paternoster-row; A. and J. BLACK, and H. PARRY, Leadenhall-street; T. EGERTON, Charing Cross; G. NICOLL, Pall Mall; C. LAW, Ave Maria-lane; J. SEWELL, Cornhill; J. WHITE, Fleet-/street; W. J. W. RICHARDSON, Royal Exchange; LEIGH and SOTHEBY, York-street; CADELL and DAVIES, and W. OTRIDGE and / Son, Strand; I. and J. BOYDELL, Cheapside; F. and C. RIVINGTON, St. Paul's Church-yard; T. PAYNE, Mews Gate; HEATHER / and Co. Leadenhall-street; LONGMAN and REES, J. WALLIS, and H. D. SYMONDS, Paternoster-row; J. DEBRETT and J. WRIGHT, / Picadilly; J. and A. ARCH, Gracechurch-street; VERNOR and HOOD, Poultry; J. HOOKHAM, and J. CARPENTER and Co., Bond-/street; J. BELL, Oxford-road; CROSBY and LETTERMAN, Stationer's-court; BUNNEY and GOLD, Shoelane; DARTON and HARVEY, / Gracechurch-street; D. STEEL, Tower-hill; J. HARDY and Sons, Ratcliffe Highway; LACKINGTON, ALLEN and Co. Finsbury-/square; E. LLOYD, Harley-street; and S. DEIGHTON, Cambridge: / By Bye and Law, St. John's-square, Clerkenwell. / MDCCC.
4to. Engraved title (1 leaf); printed title page ([I]); dedication (iii-vi); preface (vii-xcv); list of plates (xcvi); advertisement (xcvii-c); test, with 18 engraved plates inserted (1-368).
Vol. II. AN / HISTORY / OF / MARINE ARCHITECTURE. / . . .
4to. Title page (1 leaf); list of plates (1 leaf); text, with 36 engraved plates inserted, of which 19 are folding (1-496).
Vol. III. AN / HISTORY / OF / MARINE ARCHITECTURE. / . . . / MDCCCII.
4to. Title page (1 leaf); list of plates (1 leaf); text, with 46 engraved plates, of which 1 is folding, inserted (1-412); general table of contents (413-36).
The engraved title page of Vol. I has a medallion designed by Benjamin West and D. Serres, engraved by Shipster (see Plate XIV). The engravings in Vol. I, a few of which are touched with acquatint, are charming drawings of ships. The engravers were Thomas Hall (fl.1800), an English painter, engraver, and user of acquatint; James Newton (1748-ca. l804); and R. Shipster (fl.1796-99), English, a student of Bartolozzi see No. 3). The engravings in Vol. II are by James Newton and Charles Tomkins, and the engravings in Vol III are by Barlow, James Newton, and Charles Tomkins.
John Charnock (1756-1807) was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Oxford. After a break with his father, he devoted himself entirely to naval affairs. His first book,
The Rights of a Free People , 1792, was quickly followed by the six-volume work
Biographia Navalis: Impartial Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Navy of Great Britain from the Year 1660 , 1794-98. These were then succeeded by
A Letter on Finance and on National Defense , 1798; this work, the
History of Marine Architecture , 1800-1802; and the
Life of Lord Nelson , 1806.
There is, perhaps, a question of the actual date of issue of the History of Marine Architecture. The title page is dated 1800, the engraved title page is dated 1801, the dedication is dated December 31, 1800, and the advertisement in Vol. I is dated April 6, 1802. Since the title page of Vol. II is dated 1801 and that of Vol. III 1802, it may very well be that the entire work was issued in 1802. Or perhaps this set is a second printing of the first edition.
In referring to the wartime uses of marine architecture and the improvements those uses may have brought, Charnock shows himself both thoughtful and sensitive. He says: Degrading as it may appear to what is called the dignity of human nature, we fear it is a truth, too firmly established to be controverted, or even disputed, that many of those arts, the discovery and perfection of which are thought to have contributed most eminently to the benefit and advantage of mankind, owe their existence and progress in a much greater degree to the depravity of the human mind, than to any of those virtuous principles of enquiry which can alone adorn and exalt it. [I, 1]
The set ordered by Jefferson for the University in the section on "Technical Arts" of the want list is still in the library, though it now lacks a frontispiece.
U. Va. *VM15.C48.1801
THE / GENTLEMAN / AND / CABINET-MAKER'S / DIRECTOR. / BEING A LARGE / COLLECTION / OF THE MOST / Elegant and Useful Designs of Household Furniture/ IN THE / GOTHIC, CHINESE and MODERN TASTE: / Including a great VARIETY of / BOOK-CASES for LIBRARIES or Private / Rooms. COMMODES, / LIBRARY and WRITING-TABLES, / BUROES, BREAKFAST-TABLES, / DRESSING and CHINA-TABLES, / CHINA-CASES, HANGING SHELVES, / TEA-CHESTS, TRAYS, FIRE-SCREENS, / CHAIRS, SETEES, SOPHA'S, BEDS, / PRESSES and CLOATHS-CHESTS, / PIER-GLASS SCONCES, SLAB FRAMES, / BRACKETS, CANDLE-STANDS, / CLOCK-CASES, FRETS, / AND OTHER / ORNAMENTS. / TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, / A Short EXPLANATION of the Five ORDERS of ARCHITECTURE, / and RULES of PERSPECTIVE; / WITH / Proper DIRECTIONS for executing the most difficult Pieces, the Mouldings being exhibited / at large, and the Dimensions of each DESIGN specified: /THE WHOLE COMPREHENDED IN / One Hundred and Sixty COPPER-PLATES, neatly Engraved, / Calculated to improve and refine the present TASTE, and suited to the Fancy and Circumstances of / Persons in all Degrees of Life. / Dulcique animos novitate tenebo. OVID. / Ludentis speciem dabit & torquebitur . HOR. / BY / THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, / Of St. MARTIN'S-LANE, CABINET-MAKER. / THE SECOND EDITION. / LONDON, / Printed by J. HABERKORN, in Gerard-Street, / For the AUTHOR, and sold at his House in St. Martin's-Lane. / Also by T. OSBORNE, Bookseller, in Gray's-Inn; H. PIERS, Bookseller, in Holborn; R. SAYER, Print-/seller, in Fleetstreet; J. SWAN, near Northumberland House, in the Strand. At EDINBURGH, by / Messrs. HAMILTON and BALFOUR: And at DUBLIN, by Mr. JOHN SMITH, on the Blind-Quay. / M DCCLV.
Folio. Title page in red and black (1 leaf); engraved dedication (I); preface (iii-vi); list of subscribers (vii-x); description of plates, with pp. 25-27 misbound (1-27); 160 engraved plates.
The engravers were Matthew Darly (fl. l754-72), English engraver and caricaturist; Johann Sebastian Miller, or Müller (1715-85), also known as John Miller and sometimes caled L'Espérance, born in Nuremburg but working principally in England where he arrived in 1744; and Tobias Miller, or Müller (see No. 24).
There was only one architect among the subscribers, James Payne. But four booksellers, one bricklayer, eighty-six cabinetmakers, four carpenters, ten carvers, one chemist, two engravers, two founders, one jeweler, thirteen joiners, one merchant, one organmaker, two painters, one picture-frame maker, two plasterers, two professors of philosophy, seventeen "upholders," five "upholsterers," and one watchmaker were included.
Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) was born in Worcestershire. By 1752 he had become a cabinetmaker and upholsterer in London, and his reputation was great enough by 1754, the date of the first issue of his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, that his book was stocked by booksellers in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. This edition (1755) is the second, and the third was published in 1762. Its contents are well outlined on the title page.
By 1793, however, the book had gone out of fashion. Sheraton said of it at that time that "as for the designs themselves, they are now wholly antiquated and laid aside, though possessed of great merit according to the times in which they were executed" (DNB).
Chippendale must have been rather used to disparaging statements, though he did not live to hear Sheraton's, for he says at the end of his preface: Upon the whole, I have here given no design but what may be executed with advantage by the hands of a skillful workman, tho' some of the profession have been diligent enough to represent them ( especially those after the Gothic and Chinese manner) as so many specious drawings, impossible to be work'd off by any mechanic whatsoever. I will not scruple to attribute this to malice, ignorance and inability: And I am confident I can convince all Noblemen, Gentlemen, or others, who will honour me with their commands, that every design in the book can be improved, both as to beauty and enrichment, in the execution of it by
Just as his plates begin with an examination of the orders, so we find him placing the relation between architecture and cabinetmaking first in importance in his preface: Of all the ARTS which are either improved or ornamented by Architecture, that of CABINET-MAKING is not only the most useful and ornamental, but capable of receiving as great assistance from it an any whatever. I have there-fore prefixed to the following designs a short explanation of the five Orders. Without an acquaintance with this science, and some knowledge of the rules of Perspective, the Cabinet-maker cannot make the designs of his work intelligible, nor shew, in a little compass, the whole conduct and effect of the piece. These, therefore, ought to be carefully studied by everyone who would excell in this branch, since they are the very soul and basis of his art.
Chinese adaptations permeate the book, even in furniture designated Gothic or French, as in Plate XVII on the frets of "French Chairs." It is especially strong in Plates XCIII, CX, CXI, CXV, and CLVII-CLX (see Plates XV and XVI). The three plate descriptions that follow are typical and may very well have strengthened Jefferson's interest in Chinese forms: 
Plate XCIII. Is a Chinese cabinet with drawers in the middle part, and two different sorts of doors at each end. The bottom drawer is intended to be all in one; the dimensions and mouldings are all fixed to the design. This Cabinet, finished according to the drawing, and by a good workman, will, I am confident, be very genteel. [P. 19]
Plate CXI. A China Case, not only the richest and most magnificent in the whole, but perhaps in all Europe. I had a particular pleasure in retouching and finishing this design, but should have much more in the execution of it, as I am confident I can make the work more beautiful and striking than the drawing. The proportion and harmony of the several parts will then be view'd with advantage, and reflect mutual beauty upon each other. The ornaments will appear more natural and graceful, and the whole construction will be so much improv'd under the ingenious hand of a workman, as to make it fit to adorn the most elegant apartment. [P. 22]
Plates CLVII. CLVIII. CLIX. and CLX. A Variety of Chinese railing, very proper for gardens and other places, and may be converted (by the ingenious workman ) to other uses. [P. 27]
Jefferson sold his copy to Congress, an edition which Kimball incorrectly called the third, saying Jefferson had acquired it after 1789. The copy now at the University duplicates Jefferson's and is the gift of the Class of 1952. Jefferson did not order it for the University.
M *NK2542.C5A3 Sowerby
GREEK MARBLES / BROUGHT / FROM THE SHORES / OF THE / EUXINE, ARCHIPELAGO, and MEDITERRANEAN, / AND DEPOSITED IN THE / VESTIBULE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY / OF THE / UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, / BY / EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE, LL.D. / LATE FELLOW OF JESU COLLEGE, / AND PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY IN THAT UNIVERSITY. / CAMBRIDGE: / PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SYNDICS OF THE PRESS. / SOLD BY PAYNE, PALL MALL CADELL AND DAVIES, STRAND, LONDON, AND THE / BOOK SELLERS OF THE TWO UNIVERSITIES. / M.DCCC.IX.
Small 4to. Engraved frontispiece; title page (1 leaf); advertisement (1 leaf); preface ([I]-vii); text (1-79); postscript (81); 3 engraved plates inserted.
Three of the plates were drawn by John Flaxman (1755-1826), who was born at York, the son of a maker and seller of plaster casts who worked principally in London. Flaxman, although a child prodigy gain- ing a first prize from the Royal Society of Arts at the age of twelve, also studied at the Royal Academy Schools and spent some time in Rome. He returned to England to execute an immense amount of work, both sculp- ture and drawings. Pettro William Tompkins (1760-1840), the en- graver, was born in England. He studied with Bartolozzi (see No. 3) and became a distinguished engraver in the chalk and dotted manner. Many small prints that bear his name may have been engraved by scholars under his direction. For Sir William Gell, who drew the fourth plate, see No. 47.
Edward Daniel Clarke (1769-1822), a traveler, antiquary, and mineralogist, was born in the vicarage at Willingdon, Sussex, the grand- son of William Clarke, the antiquary. He was educated at Tonbridge Grammar school and Jesus College, Cambridge. He received his B.A. in 1790, his M.A. in 1794, and his L.L.D. in 1803. He later traveled in Italy, Germany, Scotland, Scandinavia, Russia, `and Asia Minor before he found himself in Greece in 1801. There he arranged the removal of the colossal statue of Ceres, now generally called a Kistophoros, but it was necessary to bribe the waiwode of Athens, purchase the statue, and obtain a firman. The boat bearing the statue and the other marbles sank just off the coast of England, but the crates were salvaged. After Clarke's return to England, he was given two livings on the occasion of his ordination. In 1808 he was appointed the university professor of mineralogy at Cambridge and in 1817 was made the librarian of the University.
He published some sixteen works in all, such as Testimonies of Different Authors Respecting the Colossal Statue of Ceres . . . at Cambridge, 1802, and the six-volume quarto work Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa , 1810-23, as well as this book, which was first published in 1809 at the expense of Cambridge Univer- sity.
In his preface Clarke says:
"The Collection, such as it is, must be considered, after all, merely a gleaning.... But, if future travelers from the University, hereafter visiting the territories in which these monuments were found, contribute also their portion, Alma Mater will have no reason to blush for her poverty in documents so materially affecting the utility and dignity of her establishment. The foundation, atleast, of a Collection of Greek Marbles may be said to have been laid"
(pp. I-ii) .
The text is a catalogue of the collection, chiefly fragments with inscriptions, but the centerpiece of the collection was the remains of what was thought to be the colossal statue of Ceres of Eleusis
Jefferson's "4" annotation on the order for this book for the University, in the section on "History-Civil-Antient" of the want list, either indicates an error on his part as to the number of volumes or else doubt as to whether the format was quarto or octavo. The book was in the collection by 1828 but has not survived. The present copy on the library's shelves, a gift from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, is from the collection of Baron Northwick.
U.Va. *NB87.C53 1809
THE / PRACTICAL SURVEYOR's / ASSISTANT. / IN TWO PARTS. /
| Part the I. being a Table of Dif- | || | Part the II. a like Table fitted to |
| ference of Latitude and Departure, | || | every quarter of a Degree of the |
| fitted to every Degree of the Quad- | || | Quadrant and continued from one |
| rant, and continued from one tenth | || | tenth of a Perch to Four hundred and |
| of a Perch to a Mile. | || | fifty Perches. |
PHILADELPHIA: / PRINTED BY BENJAMIN JOHNSON, / FOR THE AUTHOR. / M,DCC,XCIII.
8vo. Title page (1 leaf); subscription list (2 leaves); tables ([11-45).
Sowerby points out that John Clendinin, a surveyor of 47 Sugar Alley, appears in the Philadelphia directory only in 1793. She had seen no copy of the Assistant for collation. The book contains only two series of tables, as described on the title page.
Jefferson sold his copy of the Assistant to Congress. He did not order it for the University, whose present copy is a part of the Stone Collection.
M *TYP1793.C54 Sowerby 3709
ANTIQUITÉS / DE / LA FRANCE, / Par M. CLERISSEAU, Architecte, de l'Académie Royale de Peinture / & Sculpture de Paris, Membre de la Société Royale de Peinture, /Sculpture & Architecture de Londres. / PREMIERE PARTIE.
/ A PARIS, / De l'Imprimerie de PHILIPPE-DENYS PIERRES, rue S. Jacques. / Et se vend / Chez / L'AUTEUR, au Louvre, Porte de la Colonnade. / Le Sieur POULLEAU, Graveur, à l'Estrapade. / Le Sieur JOULLAIN, Md d'Estampes, Quài de la Mégisserie, à la ville de Rome. / M. DCC. LXXVIII.
Folio. Half title ([I]); title page ([iii]); dedication ([v-vi]); preface (vii-xiv); table of plates (xv-xxii); list of subscribers (1 leaf); engraved frontispiece (1 leaf ); 41 engraved plates.
The engraver was C. R. G. Poulleau, who also acted as one of the sellers of the book.
The list of subscribers included fourteen architects, four men of law, four doctors, one engineer, one engraver, one engraver of medals, seven painters, and one sculptor.
Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820), born in Paris, was educated at the Acadmie de Peinture et de Sculpture there and later at Rome after he had won the Prix de Rome in 1746. While in Rome he knew Winckelmann (Nos. l28a & b); Robert Adam, whom he accompanied to Spalatro (No. 3); Chambers, who lived with him in Rome (Nos. 23 & 24); and Piranesi (No. 99). He went to London to work with the Adam brothers in 1771, but their bankruptcy sent him back to France in 1778. Although he was appointed first architect to Catherine II of Russia in 1783, he returned to France before the Revolution and he settled in the country, gaining membership in the Legion d'honneur under the Empire. He had been an Academician as early as 1769 and also was a member of the Academy of St. Petersburg.
This work was first issued in 1778 (see Plate XVII). The second edition of 1806 had a text by J. G. Legrand. Plates I-IX illustrate the "Maison quarr e," Plates X-XIX the amphitheater at N mes, and Plates XX-XLI a temple near the baths at Nîmes and fragments found nearby
Clérisseau prefers the spirit of the ancient monuments to exact copies and tells us why:
Pour arriver à ce point de perfection, il nous reste donc encore à faire sur l'antique de nouvelles observations non moins intéressantes aux celles qui nous ont occupé jusqu'à présent. Si nos édifices n'ont point cette majesté & cette sage convenance, qui caractérisent les Monumens des Anciens; n'est-ce point parce qu'en copiant exactement les formes de leurs masses, & les proportions de leur détails, nous n'etudions pas assez l'esprit dans lequel ces Monumens étoient composés, & nous ne recherchons pas ce qui a pu leur imprimer ce caractère imposant qui nous étonne encore aujourd'hui dans leurs vestiges? [Pp. xi-xii]
He had several reasons for starting with Nîmes in general and with the "Maison quarrée" in particular:
Les Monumens de Nismes tiennent le premier rang parmi les Antiquités de la France. C'est donc leur assigner la place qui leur convient que de commencer par eux le Recueil de tous les Monumens anciens que je me propose de donner au Public. Les Artistes & les Gens de Lettres sont tous convenus que Rome n'avoit point de Monument plus parfait que la Maison quarrée.
Si nous sommes une fois bien convaincus, que les colonnes en péristile, ne portent un caractère majestueux que lorsqu'elles sont espacées à deux diamètres un quant au plus, nous conviendrons facilement qu'il faut les supprimer par-tout où elles ne sont pas de nécessité absolue, & ou il est impossible de les employer dans ce rapport.
C'est à cette justesse de proportion dans leur espacement, que les colonnes de la Maison quarrée doivent toute leur grace, & le caractère imposant qu'elles portent malgré leur petit diamètre, ce qui m'a determiné à' en donner au public les mesures & les dessins dans le plus grand détail; & avec toute l'exactitude possible.
Clérisseau assisted Jefferson with his designs for the Capitol at Richmond, and, of course, the &dlquo;Maison quarrée" was chosen by Jefferson as his model. The resemblance between the two buildings, beyond the use in both of the rectangular, porticoed temple form, is not great, however, due primarily to the change in orders from the Corinthian of the original to the Ionic of the Capitol (see Plates XVIII, XIX, XX, and XXI). The introduction of windows in the Capitol also lessens the resemblance to the original temple in both Jefferson's drawings and in the model made under Clérisseau's supervision and sent to Richmond from Paris (N-280). (See also No. 80 for further information on Jefferson and the temple. )
Sowerby points out that Jefferson bought this book from Clérisseau himself in 1786, a year before his famous visit to Nîmes. Jefferson "pd. Clerissault for a book 72 f." according to his notebook for June 2, 1786. But Jefferson had known about the building before that, since he was using it in his designs for the Capitol as early as September 20, 1785, as stated in a letter to James Madison.
The half title of this book is " Monumens de Nismes. " The book is called " Première Partie, " but this volume is all that was ever published. This edition was printed by P. D. Pierres, who a few years later was to print the first edition of Jefferson's
Notes on Virginia.
Jefferson's own copy of the book was sold to Congress. He ordered it for the University in the section on "Architecture" of the want list, but there is no record that it was acquired in his lifetime. The copy in the library now was acquired soon after 1950.
U.Va. M *NA335.N5C6.l778 Sowerby 4209
Coetnempren, Armand-Guy Simon de, comte de Kersaint. See Kersaint, Armand-Guy Simon de Coetnempren, comte de (No. 62).
Ecole d'architecture rurale.
Paris, 1791.
The University owns only Henry Holland's translation and condensation of the work, titled:
PISÉ, /Or the Art of Building strong and durable /Walls, to the Height of several Stories, with / nothing but Earth, or the most common Materials. Drawn up and presented to the / Board of Agriculture, by Henry Holland, / Esq.
The translation appeared in the American Farmer, Baltimore, for March 30, April 6, April 13, and April 27, 1821. It is an essay on the method of building with tamped earth. The University's copy consists of loose quarto sheets torn from the original journal.
François Cointeraux (b. 1739) worked at Lyons where the use of pis&egacute; had been known for centuries.
Sowerby describes the French work as a first edition and an octavo in four parts. She also points out that Jefferson "had seen building in this way near Lyons" and "had known the author at Paris, where he raised some walls to shew his manner," as Jefferson wrote in a letter of April 13, 1800, to William Short in Paris; that Jefferson had told Washington that Cointeraux was not entitled to any particular answer when Cointeraux had asked to be brought to this country; and that Jefferson had made a pr&egacute;cis called "Pis&egacute; walls. Cointeraux's new method of 1808." Jefferson sold his copy to Congress. He did not order it for the University.
M [*Thl421.C675.1821] Sowerby 1177
This was ordered by Jefferson for the University in the section on &ldquo"Technical Arts"&rdquo of the want list, but there is no record of the library's ever having received a copy. Jefferson sold his own copy, or at least a part of it, to Congress. The British Museum description, rather than Sowerby's annotation on the above edition, has been given here.
U.Va. M Sowerby 1227
THE / ELEMENTS / OF / LINEAR PERSPECTIVE, / DESIGNED / FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS / IN THE / UNIVERSITY. /By D. CRESSWELL, A.M. /FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
/ CAMBRIDGE: / Printed by FRANCIS HODSON, / FOR J. DEIGHTON; / AND SOLD BY LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, / PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON: AND PARKER, OXFORD. / 1811.
8vo. Title page ( [I] ); preface ( iii-x ); table of contents (1 leaf ); text (1-66); errata (1 leaf); 9 engraved, folding plates.
The engraver, Wilson Lowry (1762-1824), was born in Whitehaven but worked in London. He was the son of Strickland Lowry, the portraitist and illustrator, and the pupil of John Brown.
Daniel Cresswell ( 1776-1844) was educated at Cambridge. In addition to the Perspective he also wrote a Treatise on Spherics. He gives his reasons for the Perspective, notes the uses of the camera lucida, and points out what is new in his book in its preface: The following pages originated in the supposed want of a concise treatise on Perspective, adapted to the system of education established in the University of Cambridge. Perhaps no subject, within the whole range of mathematical enquiry, is in itself more attractive.... It is not so readily conceived how the business of delineation can be reduced to a science, certain and demonstrable as that of arithmetic. The principles, by means of which this is effected, although few, and plain, and familiar to the studious, lie beyond the limits of common observation; neither is such an application of them very likely to occur to those who know them best. The bare enunciation, therefore, of the problem, so to represent an object upon a gzven surface, that the picture and its original shall excite the same sensations, is sufficient to stimulate the curiosity of a young and ingenuous mind. Whether, indeed, the doctrine of Perspective be considered only as a remarkable instance of ingenious speculation, or as forming the basis of correct design, and instructing the judgement of the connoisseur in painting, it comes sufficiently recommended to the man of liberal education. [Pp. iii-iv]
They who wish to copy accurately and expeditiously the scenery of nature, will probably have recourse to mechanical means; and the Camera Lucida, the recent invention of Dr. Wollaston, will be found well suited to their purpose. Still, whoever employs himself in drawing will find his advantage in learning the principles of Perspective. [P. vii]
If the investigations here offered to the University should appear difficult to any student of the second year, . . . it can only be attributed to one, or both, of these two causes; the newness of the terms employed, and the want of a familiar acquaintance with the first principles of the geometry of solids. [p. ix]
It only remains formally to acknowledge, what would doubtless be inferred from the history of Perspective, that the following is chiefly to be considered as. a new work in what regards its language, the formation and connexion of its propositions, and its general arrangement. They who have read the admirable essay of Dr. Brook Taylor [see No. 63], will no more expect any thing which really deserves the name of originality here, than they would in a treatise on Optics, written after that of Sir Isaac Newton: And this is a subject the utmost limits of which are discovered at a first view. [P. ix-x]
This treatise on perspective is a straightforward exposition of the subject with diagrammatic plates, except for the last, which shows a simple, rendered interior.
There are two copies of the text at the University (QA515 and QA535). In each the Elements of Linear Perspective is bound with the Treatise on Spherics, the Elements of Linear Perspective first in QA515 and second in QA535. The spine of QA515 is labeled "Cresswell's Sup. to Euclid."
There is evidence from the nature of the 1825 Kean entry and the 1828 Catalogue printed entry that the binding for QAs3s was done be- tween these years. A copy of this book was already at the University before Jefferson made up his want list.
U. Va. *QA515.C7.1811; *QA535.C7
Vol. I. THE AMERICAN / ARTIST'S MANUAL, / OR / DICTIONARY OF PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE / IN THE / APPLICATION OF PHILOSOPHY / TO / THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. / Selected from the most complete European Systems, / WITH / ORIGINAL IMPROVEMENTS / AND / APPROPRIATE ENGRAVINGS. / ADAPTED TO / THE USE OF THE MANUFACTURERS OF THE UNITED STATES. /BY JAMES CUTBUSH. / IN TWO VOLUMES-VO`L. 1.
/ PHILADELPHIA: / PUBLISHED BY JOHNSON & WARNER, AND R. FISHER. / W. Brown Printer, Church Alley. / 1814.
8vo. Title page (1 unnumbered p. ); copyright (1 unnumbered p. ); dedi- cation ([I]); preface ([iii]-iv); text with 14 engravings, of which 1 is folding, inserted and with numerous figures (336 leaves).
Vol. II. THE AMERICAN /ARTIST'S MANUAL/ . . . /IN TWO VOLUMES-VOL. II. / . . .
8vo. Title page (1 unnumbered p. ); copyright (1 unnumbered p. ); text, with 22 engravings inserted and with many figures in the text (348 leaves ) .
The engravers were Hugh Anderson (fl.1811-24), a Philadelphian; Joseph H. Seamer (fl.1719-1822), who worked at Worcester, Boston, and Philadelphia; and either Benjamin Tanner (1775-1848) or his brother Henry S. Tanner (1786-1858), both of whom worked along the eastern seaboard.
James Cutbush (1788-1823), an American chemist, introduces his book by saying: It was not to be expected that the United States, possessing such an extensive territory, and with a population so small compared with the older countries of Europe, where the number of inhabitants insures manual labor at a moderate price, could have, hitherto, made equal advances in the arts and manufactures. Recent experience has however shewn us what the united efforts of industry and enterprize, conducted by the inventive talents of our countrymen, are ca- pable of effecting. The time has already arrived, when a general diffusion of the knowledge of Europe on these subjects, cannot fail of being highly interesting and beneficial amongst us. [P. iii]
His book is, in actuality, a dictionary of crafts, which is a synonym for the word "arts" as used in the title. The entries on the following sub- jects, however, are pertinent to the fine arts-bricks, bricklayers, build- ing, cement, color making, engraving, etching, gaslight, nails, pencils, stucco, and whitewash. It is interesting to note in connection with this list that Jefferson wished to have the possibility of using gaslights at the University of Virginia investigated, as seen in a letter of May 20, 1826, to John H. Cocke, although the suggestion seems to have come from the first faculty members.
Cutbush defined building as the art of constructing and raising an edifice: in which sense it comprehends as well the expenses, as the invention and execution of the design.
In the practice of this useful art, there are five particulars to be principally attended to: 1. Situation; 2. Contrivance, or design; 3. Strength and solidity; 4. Convenience and utility; and 5. Elegance....
The modern rage for building, however, is apparently attended with this unfavourable effect, that little attention is paid to the quality of the materials, and the strength of the edifice, if speculative monied men attain their object, in erecting houses that may be let at a certain rent. [N.p.]
Jefferson ordered this book for the University in the section on "Technical Arts" of the want list, but there is no evidence that a set was acquired before 1828. The library's present set was the gift of A. C. Taylor.
U. Va. *T9.C95.1814