Thomas Jefferson to Fernagus De Gelone, 17 February 1817
To Fernagus De Gelone
Montice[l]lo Feb. 17. 17.
Sir
I have recieved a copy of a catalogue of books which you announce for sale, and ask the favor of you to send me a little note of information as to the following.
| Column | 1st | Papers found in Robespierre’s house. in what language size1 & price? |
| 3d | Peyrard’s Archimedes. in what language? what size, & price? | |
| 5th | Correspondence of Cortez with Charles V. what language, size & price? | |
| 6th | Hippocrates’s works. in what language, size & price? and are they all his works, or only particular parts? | |
| 8th | Mounier on the causes which have kept the French from being free. language? size & price? |
on receiving this information, I can decide which of them I will ask for, remit the price, and direct how they shall be sent. Accept my respectful salutations.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); on verso of reused address cover to TJ; dateline faint; at foot of text: “Mr J. L. Fernagus de Gelone New York. 113. Pearl street. Hanover square”; endorsed by TJ.
Jean Louis Fernagus De Gelone (b. ca. 1783), a French royalist, was exiled in 1802 during Napoleon’s consulate. After being imprisoned in Saint Domingue, he was sent with former officers of the revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Overture to a labor camp in Guiana, from which he escaped in 1804 following a severe illness. Fernagus De Gelone later settled in Philadelphia as a bookseller specializing in foreign works. Late in 1816 he had opened a shop in New York City, and in addition by 1819 he had stores in Washington, D.C., and Paris. He also published a travel guide to the United States, Manuel-Guide des Voyageurs aux États-Unis (Paris, 1818). Beginning in 1820 Fernagus De Gelone added to his retail establishment a coeducational boarding and day school in New York City. The curriculum included languages, natural philosophy, surveying, fencing, music, and carpentry, as well as education for deaf and mute students. After encountering financial difficulties in 1821, Fernagus De Gelone moved by early the following year to Port au Prince, Haiti, where he found government employment (Fernagus De Gelone, Relation de la déportation et de l’exil a Cayenne d’un Jeune Français, sous le Consulat de Buonaparte, en 1802. En Sept Lettres [Paris, 1816]; New York Columbian, 7 Dec. 1816; Fernagus De Gelone to TJ, 15 Dec. 1818, 5 Oct. 1820, 10 Jan. 1822; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 25 Feb. 1819; New York Commercial Advertiser, 17 Apr., 23 May, 16 June 1820).
1. Word interlined.
Index Entries
- Archimedes; Œuvres d’Archimède (trans. F. Peyrard) search
- Correspondance de Fernand Cortès avec l’empereur Charles-Quint (trans. Flavigny) search
- Cortés, Hernán; correspondence of search
- Courtois, Edme Bonaventure; Rapport fait au nom de la commission chargée de l’examen des papiers trouvés Chez Robespierre et ses complices search
- Dacier, André; Extrait de la Vie d’Hippocrate,inTraduction des œuvres médicales d’Hippocrate, sur le texte grec, d’après l’édition de Foës (ed. D. J. Tournon; trans. J. B. Gardeil) search
- Fernagus De Gelone, Jean Louis; as bookseller search
- Fernagus De Gelone, Jean Louis; identified search
- Fernagus De Gelone, Jean Louis; letters to search
- Flavigny, Gratien Jean Baptiste Louis, vicomte de; translatesCorrespondance de Fernand Cortès avec l’empereur Charles-Quint search
- Gardeil, Jean Baptiste; translatesTraduction des œuvres médicales d’Hippocrate, sur le texte grec, d’après l’édition de Foës (ed. D. J. Tournon) search
- Hippocrates (Greek physician); works of search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; catalogues from booksellers search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; orders books search
- Mounier, Jean Joseph; Recherches sur les causes Qui ont empêché les François de devenir libres et sur les moyens qui leur restent pour acquérir la liberté search
- Œuvres d’Archimède (trans. F. Peyrard) search
- Peyrard, François; translatesŒuvres d’Archimède (Archimedes) search
- Rapport fait au nom de la commission chargée de l’examen des papiers trouvés Chez Robespierre et ses complices (E. B. Courtois) search
- Recherches sur les causes Qui ont empêché les François de devenir libres et sur les moyens qui leur restent pour acquérir la liberté (J. J. Mounier) search
- Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de; Rapport fait au nom de la commission chargée de l’examen des papiers trouvés Chez Robespierre et ses complices (E. B. Courtois) search
- Tournon, Dominique Jérôme; editsTraduction des œuvres médicales d’Hippocrate, sur le texte grec, d’après l’édition de Foës search
- Traduction des œuvres médicales d’Hippocrate, sur le texte grec, d’après l’édition de Foës (Hippocrates; ed. D. J. Tournon; trans. J. B. Gardeil) search