Jefferson, Thomas, third President

Notes on the State of Virginia. London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1787



8vo (8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.; 216 x 184 mm). Engraved folding map handcolored in outline, one text illustration, folding chart; some light offsetting to map, early paper reinforcement of several folds, one minor tear to bottom margin slightly affecting the map. Nineteenth-century polished biscuit calf, Greek key border, spine gilt, brown morocco lettering piece, marbled endpapers; boards detached, upper board somewhat abraded.

Pritchard and Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude, 72; Sabin 35896

8vo (8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.; 216 x 184 mm). Folding map hand-colored in outline, one text illustration, folding chart; some light offsetting to map, early paper reinforcement of several folds, one minor tear to bottom margin slightly affecting the map. Nineteenth-century polished biscuit calf, Greek key border, spine gilt, brown morocco lettering piece, marbled endpapers; boards detached, upper board somewhat abraded.
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The first English edition. In 1780,  the Secretary of the French legation, François Barbé-Marbois, circulated a questionnaire to several members of the Continental Congress regarding the laws, institutions, and topography of the states. When Jefferson left for France in 1785, he took his draft reply with him and arranged to have two hundred copies printed in English. A copy ended up in the hands of an unscrupulous French bookseller, Pierre-Théophile Barrois, who "employed a hireling translator and was about publishing it in the most injurious form possible" (TJ Papers 9:265). When Jefferson learned of this, he arranged for Abbé André Morellet to prepare a suitable French translation.  It was Morellet who encouraged Jefferson to include a map of Virginia and its neighboring states. Jefferson originally engaged an English engraver, Samuel Neele, to execute the plate, but the results proved disappointing as the map was riddled with errors. Jefferson finally decided upon a French engraver, Guillaume Delahaye, to make the corrections and in March 1786, two hundred and fifty impressions were pulled.

John Stockdale, who was also Jefferson's longtime bookseller, wrote on 20 November 1786 to see if Jefferson had any interest in publishing the Notes in English: "Some time past two French Gentlemen call'd upon me, with a Copy of your Minutes of Virginia, with a View to have it Printed, but I inform'd them that I had some reason to believe that a New Edition was coming out with corrections by the Author, and ... a large Map was engraving for the Work. I have some doubts wether it would pay the expences, at same time have a Wish to Publish it, with your Name, as I am convinced it is a Work of great Merit" (TJ Papers 10:545).  In his reply 8 December 1786, Jefferson ignored Stockdale's proposition, possibly because he was thinking of having an English edition printed by Hoffman's Imprimerie Polytype (see note, TJ Papers 10:587). 

On 1 February 1787, Jefferson finalized his negotiations with Stockdale.  He writes: "You have two or three times proposed to me the printing my Notes on Virginia.  I never did intend to have them made public ... [b]ut as a translation of them is coming out, I have concluded to let the original appear also.  I have therefore corrected a copy, and made some additions. I have moreover had a map engraved, which is worth more than the book. If you chuse to print  the work I will send you the corrected copy, and when it shall be nearly printed I will send the plate of the map" (TJ Papers, 11:107).

Jefferson forwarded it to Stockdale who added his imprint to the bottom of the plate and printed another 1,025 copies (Pritchard and Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude, p. 307). A Map of  the country between Albemarle Sound, and Lake Erie, comprehending the whole of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pensylvania was compiled from various cartographic sources, chiefly maps of Virginia prepared by Jefferson's father and Joshua Fry between 1750 and 1754. In the cartouche Jefferson also credits the use of Scull's map of Pennsylvania (1770) and Thomas Hutchins's A New Map of the Western Parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. He also employed Lewis Evans's map and John Churchman's Map of the Peninsula Between Delaware &c Chesopeak Bays for the eastern shore (Pritchard and Taliaferro, p. 307).