Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson: Bookbinding Directions for William F. Gray, [ca. 8 November 1818]

Enclosure

Bookbinding Directions for William F. Gray

[ca. 8 Nov. 1818]

Edinburg Review. 30. vols. half bind with leather backs, common gilt, and lettered ‘Edinburg Review. 1802.3’ or ‘Edinburg Review. 1803’ Etc as may be seen on the 1st 14. vols. but the vol. of Index must be lettered ‘Edinburg Review. 1812. Index.’
╲✳ Analectic magazine. 2. v. half bound, leather back. neatly gilt. lettered ‘Analectic magazine 1818’ but the 2d vol. must be kept back1 till the remaining months come in.
Port folio. 8. vols. half bind. leather backs. neatly gilt. lettered with the title & year.
Emporium. 3. vols. half bind. leather backs. common gilt. lettered with title & year.
╲✳ Belfast magazine. 3. vols. half bind. leather backs. neatly gilt. lettered with title & year.
╲✳ Literary magazine. 2. vols. half bind. leather backs. neatly gilt. lettered with title & year.
╲✳ Monthly register. 1. vol. half bind. leather back. neatly gilt. lettered with title & year.
Robinsons reports. 2. vols2 half bind. plain law leather back, lettered with title & vol. to wit V. & VI.
Law Journal. 2. vols. half bind. plain law leather back. lettered with title.
 
Laws U.S. 2. vols. half bound. plain law leather back. lettered ‘Laws U.S. 1803.4.’ and ‘1805.6.’
Cormon’s3 dict. 2. v. ╲Historia de España. 2. v. fully bound in a common neat binding lettered with title & vol.4
2. maps in sheets. to be pasted on linen, without rollers.

procure Bowditch’s

MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 215:38332); entirely in TJ’s hand; undated.

At the foot of these instructions TJ summarized an otherwise unknown letter to Gray of 11 Nov. 1818 (not recorded in SJL): “Nov. 11. wrote supplementory direction to trim leaves.”

By a plain law leather back, TJ probably meant a binding using so-called “law calf” skin, which was uncolored or cream colored and used historically for law books (Matt T. Roberts and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology [1982], 151; OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends , cf. “law”). The law journal was the American Law Journal edited by John E. Hall (Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library, 1829 description ends , 10 [no. 600]).

What TJ here calls laws u.s. is described in Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library, 1829 description ends , 10 (no. 590), as “Session’s Laws of the United States, 1803, ’4, ’5 and ’6, 8vo.” This may have consisted of the four pamphlets containing the laws passed during the four congressional sessions of 1803–07.

1Preceding three words interlined in place of “wait.”

2Preceding two words interlined.

3In margin to the left of this word TJ wrote: “59. vols,” the total number of volumes to be bound by Gray, not counting the maps.

4Entry for preceding two titles interlined.

Index Entries

  • American Law Journal (J. E. Hall) search
  • Belfast Monthly Magazine; bound for TJ search
  • books; binding of for TJ search
  • books; dictionaries search
  • books; on history search
  • Bowditch, Nathaniel; The New American Practical Navigator search
  • Cormon, Jacques Louis Barthélemi; Dictionnaire portatif et de prononciation, Espagnol-Français et Français-Espagnol search
  • Dictionnaire portatif et de prononciation, Espagnol-Français et Français-Espagnol (J. L. B. Cormon) search
  • Edinburgh Review; bound for TJ search
  • Emporium of Arts & Sciences; bound for TJ search
  • French language; dictionaries search
  • Gray, William Fairfax; binds books for TJ search
  • Gray, William Fairfax; letters to accounted for search
  • Gray, William Fairfax; maps prepared by search
  • Hall, John Elihu; American Law Journal search
  • Historia de España search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; binding of books search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Bookbinding Directions for William F. Gray search
  • law; books on search
  • maps; prepared by bookbinders search
  • navigation; study of search
  • Port Folio; bound for TJ search
  • Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Courts of Admiralty; commencing with the Judgments of the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, Michaelmas Term 1798 (C. Robinson) search
  • Robinson, Sir Christopher; Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Courts of Admiralty; commencing with the Judgments of the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, Michaelmas Term 1798 search
  • Spain; works on search
  • Spanish language; dictionaries of search
  • The Analectic Magazine search
  • The Literary Magazine, and American Register; bound for TJ search
  • The Monthly Register, and Review of the United States; bound for TJ search
  • The New American Practical Navigator (N. Bowditch) search