Description
The Eighth American Edition of Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson, published in 1801, with all maps and plates.
Octavo, [4], [map], [5]-364pp, [2]. Contemporary calf, title stamped in gilt over black morocco on spine. Wear at head of the spine, solid hinges. Solid text block. Light foxing to endpapers and preliminary leaves. Issued with an engraved portrait frontispiece of Jefferson by Enoch G. Gridley. Complete with the large folding map by Samuel Lewis, dated 1794, a folding table of Native American tribes, a plan of Madison’s Cave, an in-text map; and numerous statistical tables. Notable transference to the Lewis map, with a short closed tear at the hinge.
(Howes J78) (Clark I:262) (Adams 57) (Sabin 35904)
Previous ownership inscription of “R.D. Shepherd” in pencil on the front pastedown. Custom slipcase.
Notes on the State of Virginia was the only book published by Thomas Jefferson during his lifetime. The first version of this book was completed by Thomas Jefferson in 1781. It was published privately in Paris in 1785, with a limited run of 200 copies, while Jefferson was serving as trade representative of the U.S. Government to France. This edition contains appendices incorporating Charles Thomson’s observations on Jefferson’s text, Jefferson’s Draught of a Fundamental Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia, An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, and documents concerning the murder of the family of the Mingo leader Logan.
