Memory

Examine selected books in the “Memory” (History) section and view the pages of History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, which chronicles events of that period.

Caius Julius Caesar (130 BC–87 BC)
John Davies, ed. (1679–1732)
C. Julii Caesaris et Auli Hirtii quae exstant omnia.… 2 vols. Cambridge: Typis Academicis, 1727. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(S. 60) (9, 9.1)

Jefferson’s Copy of Works by Caesar

Because Jefferson received an education grounded in the classics, he naturally had a copy of the works of Julius Caesar in his collection. John Davies, president of Queens College and vice chancellor of Cambridge University, was best known for his annotated editions of Cicero. In this copy, Jefferson has cut the pages of the Greek translation and interleaved them with the Latin to produce a bilingual reading copy.

William Stith (1707–1755)
The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia: Being an Essay towards a General History of this Colony. Williamsburg: Williams Parks, 1747. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(S. 463) (13)

History of the Discovery and Settlement of Virginia

William Stith compiled this detailed factual history of Virginia by culling material from the Records of the Virginia Company, a manuscript archive that Jefferson later owned and used in his work. In his Notes on Virginia, Jefferson objected to Stith’s perfunctory sense of history, noting that he was “a man of classical learning, and very exact, but of no taste in style. He is inelegant therefore, and his details often too minute to be tolerable even to a native of the country whose history he writes.”

Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814)
History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution.… 3 vols. Boston: Manning and Loring, 1805. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(S. 508) (1, 1.1, 1.2)

Mercy Otis Warren’s History of the Revolution

One of the most prominent women authors of her time, Mercy Otis Warren was well situated to write a contemporary history of the American Revolution. She was at the center of major events of the period, and her marriage to General James Warren gave her contacts important to rendering this insider’s fiercely egalitarian telling of the Revolution. Jefferson was one of the original subscribers to the work and corresponded with the author as her writing progressed. In ordering subscriptions of Warren’s History for himself and his cabinet, Jefferson noted his anticipation of her truthful and insightful account of the last thirty years that “will furnish a more instructive lesson to mankind than any equal period known in history.” The Jefferson Collection also contains a copy of Warren’s Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous (1790). The original manuscript of Warren’s History is also held by the Library of Congress.

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794)
Traité élémentaire de chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d’aprés les découvertes modernes;… 2 vols. Paris: Chardon, 1789. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(S. 830) (17, 17.1)

Lavoisier’s Ground-Breaking Book on Chemistry

Lavoisier proposed a new theory of oxidation to replace the early chemical phologistic theory in which combustible materials were believed to be partly composed of a material called “phologiston,” which was released when the materials burned. In a letter to the Reverend James Madison, president of the College of William and Mary and cousin of the U.S. president, Jefferson observed: “It is probably an age too soon to propose the establishment of system. The attempt therefore of Lavoisier to reform the chemical nomenclature is premature.”

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