1794 AMERICAN EDITION OF JEFFERSON'S NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION TO INCLUDE A MAP

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1794. Octavo, contemporary full sheep, red morocco spine label; pp. [4], 336. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Second American edition of the only book-length work by Jefferson to be published in his lifetime, with large folding map of Virginia by Samuel Lewis (not issued with the first American edition) and folding chart listing Indian tribes, in contemporary American sheep binding.

"The Notes on Virginia laid the foundations of Jefferson's high contemporary reputation as a universal scholar and of his present fame as a pioneer American scientist… This extraordinarily informing and generally interesting book may still be consulted with profit about the geography and productions, the social and political life, of 18th-century Virginia. With ardent patriotism as well as zeal for truth, Jefferson combated the theories of Buffon and Raynal in regard to the degeneracy of animal and intellectual life in America, and he manifested great optimism in regard to the future of the country, but he included strictures on slavery and the government of Virginia" (ANB). Written in the form of answers to questions about Virginia, the work supplies a description of the geography, and develops an abundance of supporting material and unusual information. Jefferson wrote the greater part of the work in 1781 and first had it published in a privately printed edition of 200 copies in 1785 in Paris (though the title page of that edition incorrectly reads 1782). A poor translation into French followed in 1786—it was derided by Sabin as "a tissue of blunders" but included for the first time Neele's map of Virginia. The exceptionally rare first English edition was issued by Stockton in 1787 in an edition of 1000 copies with Neele's map colored in outline. The first American edition followed in 1788 but did not include a map. This second American edition contains the famous Samuel Lewis map of Virginia, which appeared the following year in Guthrie's New System of Modern Geography, the first American Atlas published in America. With folding chart of Indian tribes; full-page illustration of Madison's Cave; numerous tables; and printings of the 1783 Draught of a Fundamental Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Jefferson's 1786 Act for Establishing Religious Freedom. Evans 27162. Howes J78. Sabin 35898. Goldsmiths 15923. Verner, Imago Mundi, 1794. See Church 1189. Owner signature "Saml. Miller 1797 12/" to front free endpaper and title page.

Text generally quite clean with only light scattered foxing; browning to margins of last few leaves and rear endpapers, not affecting text; folding map with some light dampstaining and an expertly repaired 6-inch closed tear from inner margin through empty part of map; folding table of Indian tribes (between pp. 134-135) with an expertly repaired 5-inch closed tear from outer margin. Contemporary sheep binding with expertly repaired joints expert restoration to extremities, dark stains to spine. A desirable copy of this essential work.