Saturday, November 19, 2011

Thomas Jefferson's Copy of Aeschylus

The Chestertown Old Book Co. is pleased to offer an historically significant set of books from the personal library of Thomas Jefferson, assembled and interleaved by him, specially bound by his personal bookbinder, and containing Jefferson's unique quire ownership markings.

This is a seven volume set of The Tragedies of Aeschylus, in full leather, octavo in size, bound by Frederick Mayo in uniform bindings of gilt tooled calfskin. Each volume was assembled and bound according to Jefferson's specifications, resulting in varied texts, pagination, paper stock, and language: French, English, Greek and Latin. Following the 1815 sale of the bulk of his library to Congress, Jefferson continued to acquire books. The Retirement Library Catalogue, written in Jefferson's hand, constituted the third and final library at Monticello. After Jefferson died in 1826, his library was listed for auction through Nathaniel P. Poor in Washington, D.C., on February 27, 1829. This Aeschylus set is included in the Poor Catalogue.

Jefferson's habit was to mark his books at quires "I" and/or "T", by placing his initial in ink beside the quire signature. Jefferson's marks are present in these volumes. Jefferson's "strike-throughs" are also present on the title pages of four volumes. Also present is a handwritten notation by G.C. Verplanck, the original buyer at auction. This set of books has been in the Verplanck family since its purchase at the auction. In addition, the set of books is specifically referred to in a letter Jefferson wrote to Philadelphia book dealer John Laval on March 27, 1820.

For further information on this unique set of Jefferson's books please contact us at rarebooks@verizon.net, or telephone 410-810-3880.