Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to Nicolas Gouin Dufief, 10 April 1802

To Nicolas Gouin Dufief

Washington Apr. 10. 1802.

Sir

I recieved yesterday your favor of the 6th. and the books forwarded by mr Duane. La Grange’s translations are new to me, and I am so much pleased with that of his Seneca, that I will thank you to forward me also his Lucretius with the Latin text. has the Seneca of La Grange been ever printed with the Latin text? if it has I should be glad if you would order it from France. if not, order me another French copy unbound: to which may be added, if you please Le Systeme du Monde par La Place, 2. vols. 8vo and La Religieuse de Diderot and Le bon sens said to be by him also, both in petit format. I will immediately desire mr Barnes to have paiment made of the bill inclosed in your last with the […] additional.1 Accept my best wishes.

Th: Jefferson

PrC (DLC); blurred; at foot of text: “Mr. Dufief”; endorsed by TJ in ink on verso.

De la nature des choses, published in Paris in 1794 and reprinted in 1799, paired N. de La Grange’s French translation of De Rerum Natura by Titus LUCRETIUS Carus with the original Latin text (Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends No. 4461).

LE SYSTEME DU MONDE: Exposition du systême du monde, a work of astronomy by Pierre Simon Laplace that was published in Paris in 1796. James Monroe brought a copy of the work from France for TJ in 1797. However, only in 1809 did Monroe get his books unpacked and inform TJ that he had the title for him (Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends No. 3801; RS description begins J. Jefferson Looney and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Princeton, 2004–, 6 vols. description ends , 1:348).

Denis Diderot did not write a book called LE BON SENS. The work that TJ wanted was probably Le Bons sens: ou idées naturelles opposèes aux idèes surnaturelles, an anonymous abridgment of Baron d’Holbach’s Systême de la Nature (Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends No. 1292). Another book titled Le Bon sens (Paris, 1788), published pseudonymously as from the pen of a gentleman of Breton, was by the Comte de Kersaint. TJ assembled a petit format collection of octavo and duodecimo editions that were of a practical size for reading (Douglas L. Wilson, Jefferson’s Books [Charlottesville, 1996], 27).

BILL INCLOSED IN YOUR LAST: on 10 Apr., TJ asked John Barnes to remit to Dufief $25.75, the amount, with TJ’s addition, of the invoice enclosed in Dufief’s letter of the 6th (MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1070).

1. Preceding four words interlined.

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    Jefferson Papers
    Title
    From Thomas Jefferson to Nicolas Gouin Dufief, 10 April 1802
    Author
    Jefferson, Thomas
    Recipient
    Dufief, Nicolas Gouin
    Date
    10 April 1802

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From Thomas Jefferson to Nicolas Gouin Dufief, 10 April 1802,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-37-02-0172. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 37, 4 March–30 June 1802, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 197–198.]

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