Adamo Fabbroni (1748–1816) was born in Florence and studied and lived in various parts of the Italian peninsula before returning to his hometown in 1787. He was a member of the Florentine Academy and a host of other learned societies, the editor for several years of an agricultural journal, and the author of many scholarly publications, five of which TJ received during the 1780s from Fabbroni’s brother Giovanni. In addition to his more general agricultural works, Fabbroni published monographs on a wide range of topics, including archaeology, sculpture, silkworms, the valuation of land, and the manufacture of wine (Alberto M. Ghisalberti and others, eds., Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani [1960– ], 43:669–73; Giuseppe Sarchiani, “Elogio d’Adamo Fabbroni,” Continuazione degli Atti dell’Imp. e Reale Accademia Economico-Agraria dei Georgofili di Firenze [Florence, 1818], 1:197–206; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 37 vols. description ends , 10:155–6, 14:701, 27:754–5; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends nos. 119, 120, 770, 816, 1210).

Antoine Gouan (1733–1821), botanist and zoologist, was born in Montpellier, France, and received his medical degree from the University of Montpellier in 1752. He was appointed professor of botany at his alma mater late in the 1760s and was the director of Montpellier’s botanical garden for many years. A friend and follower of Carolus Linnaeus, Gouan wrote prolifically on plants, fish, and insects. TJ met the Frenchman while on his 1787 tour of southern France, received seeds from him during his presidency, and owned a work by him explaining the Linnaean botanical system. Gouan was a member of the Institut de France and the Légion d’honneur and served as a physician in the French army, 1793–94. He retired from teaching in 1802 due to illness, became blind during the last decade of his life, and died in his hometown (Biographie universelle description begins Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, new ed., 1843–65, 45 vols. description ends , 17:223–5; M. Amoreux, “Notice Historique Sur Antoine Gouan, professeur de botanique à l’Ecole de Médecine de Montpellier,” Mémoires de la Société Linnéenne de Paris 1 [1822]: 656–82; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 37 vols. description ends , 11:444; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 1079; Gouan to TJ, 28 Oct. 1804 [DLC]; “Portraits of Botanists,” Taxon 21 [1972]: 302).

Marc Auguste Pictet (1752–1825), educator and scientist, was born and educated in Geneva, Switzerland. Although originally trained as an attorney, he turned to science while still in his twenties. Pictet was professor of natural philosophy at the Academy of Geneva, 1786–1825, director of the local observatory, 1790–1819, and a member of both the Institut de France and the Royal Society of London. In 1790 he published an important work on heat, and six years later he helped found a journal, the Bibliothèque Britannique, to disseminate British scientific and technological discoveries. Although Pictet’s diverse scholarly interests included astronomy, geology, and meteorology, TJ only owned two of his works, a compilation of letters written in 1801 during a tour of the British Isles and an 1803 discourse on customs duties. A frequent visitor to Paris during the Consulate and Empire, he joined Napoleon’s Tribunate in 1802 and was an inspector of France’s Université Impériale for a number of years. After the emperor’s downfall, Pictet returned to Geneva and continued his studies there until his death (DSB description begins Charles C. Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1970–80, 16 vols. description ends ; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 37 vols. description ends , 28:239–40; Jean Rilliet and Jean Cassaigneau, Marc-Auguste Pictet ou le rendez-vous de l’Europe universelle, 1752–1825 [1995]; Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale, 39:91–2; Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse [2002– ]; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends nos. 2859, 3867).