To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pougens, 9 June 1803
From Charles Pougens
Paris, Quai Voltaire, No. 10.
ce 20 Prairial an xi.
9 Juin 1803. (V. style.)
Monsieur
J’ai l’honneur de vous confirmer toutes mes précédentes et de vous donner avis que, conformément à vos ordres, Je viens d’expédier deux caisses sous la marque JFP. No. 1. et 2. ci joint facture. J’ai établi les prix les plus doux possible et ménagé vos intérêts comme les miens propres. La note des parties manquantes à votre Encyclopédie méthodique était si claire que J’ai pu les réunir toutes et vous en faire expedition. Vous trouverez ci bas, Monsieur, 1o. Note de quelques articles qui feront l’objet d’une troisieme caisse. J’ai déduit les motifs pour les quels ils ne se trouvent pas dans ces deux premières. 2o. Note des articles que je ne vous fournis pas avec causes motivées.
Croyez, Monsieur, à mon zèle inaltérable. Il est proportionné à ma haute admiration pour votre personne.
Ci inclus prospectus d’un ouvrage périodique qui a rendu quelques services aux sciences et aux lettres. L’Estimable redacteur de l’Aurora en a déja parlé dans sa feuille. J’ai fait pour la 4e. année des changemens assez considérables au plan de ce journal. Vous trouverez aussi dans cette lettre le programme de mon Dictionnaire Etymologique et raisonné de la langue française au quel je travaille depuis près de vingt quatre ans. J’ai l’honneur d’être avec respect, Monsieur Votre très humble et très obeissant Serviteur
Pougens
Editors’ Translation
Paris, 10 Quai Voltaire
20 Prairial Year 11.
9 June 1803 (Old Style)
Sir,
I have the honor of confirming my earlier letters and informing you that, per your order, I have just sent two cases designated JFP No. 1 and 2. The invoice is enclosed. I set the prices as moderately as possible and considered your interest as if it were my own. The notes concerning the missing volumes from your Encyclopédie méthodique were so clear that I was able to gather and send all of them. Below you will find, Sir: 1. A few titles that will be sent in a third case with the reasons why they are not in the first two. 2. A list of the books I cannot locate along with the explanations.
Be sure of my unwavering zeal, Sir. It is proportionate to my deep admiration for you.
Enclosed is the prospectus for a periodical that has served the arts and sciences. The Aurora’s esteemed editor has already discussed it in his paper. For the fourth year, I have made considerable changes in the format of this journal.
With this letter you will also find the outline of my etymological and systematic dictionary of the French language on which I have been working for almost 24 years.
I have the honor of being your respectful, very humble, and very obedient servant.
Pougens
RC (DLC); in a clerk’s hand, signed by Pougens; on printed letterhead, including dateline with blanks for date filled by clerk; at head of text, printed: “Charles Pougens, Membre de l’Institut National de France, Imprimeur-Libraire, à” continuing in clerk’s hand: “Monsieur Jefferson président du Congrès et associé Etranger de l’Institut”; endorsed by TJ as received 28 Sep. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures: (1) Invoice of books for the Library of Congress, not found. (2) Notice of Bibliothèque française, not found (see below). (3) Syllabus of Pougens’s , not found (see below). Enclosed in Pougens to Robert R. Livingston, 8 June (see Livingston to TJ, 11 June).
je viens d’expédier deux caisses: the two containers held books that Pougens had acquired for the congressional library, plus installments of the Encyclopédie méthodique that TJ, in a letter to the bookseller dated 5 Feb. 1803, had requested for his personal collection. For the titles wanted from Paris for the Library of Congress, see Vol. 37:229–33 and Vol. 38:76–7. The books in Pougens’s shipment intended for the congressional collection cost 1,866 livres, or $345.55 according to the rate TJ later used to calculate his portion of the costs (TJ to John Beckley, 6 Mch. 1806). Pougens sent the two cases to the American consul at Le Havre for shipment to the United States (undated invoice of packing and freight charges totaling 87.15.3 livres, MS in DLC: TJ Papers, 133:23073, in a clerk’s hand, endorsed by Robert R. Livingston; John Mitchell to Pougens, 24 July, RC in DLC, which was enclosed in Pougens to Livingston, 26 July, RC in same, a brief covering note endorsed by Livingston).
d’un ouvrage périodique: Pougens recruited scholars and writers to review books on an array of subjects for the Bibliothèque française, a monthly periodical he began in 1800. William Duane, in hopes of securing subscriptions to the periodical or orders for French books, devoted part of a column of the aurora to a description of the Bibliothèque française in June 1802 (Philadelphia Aurora, 8 June 1802; Mémoires et Souvenirs de Charles de Pougens … commencés par lui et continués par Mme Louise B. de Saint-Léon [Paris, 1834], 243–4).
dictionnaire etymologique: Pougens labored for years compiling etymologies from several languages for a scholarly work on the French language to be organized alphabetically on the model of Samuel Johnson’s dictionary. He was able to put into print only a single specimen volume in 1819 that included words beginning with the letters A through C. He envisioned the work as having three components, a Trésor of word origins in six volumes, a three-volume abridgment of the Trésor, and a four-volume Dictionnaire grammatical raisonné (Charles Pougens, Trésor des origines et dictionnaire grammatical raisonné de la langue française. Specimen [Paris, 1819], v-xiv; A. V. Arnault and others, Biographie nouvelle des contemporains, ou dictionnaire historique et raisonné de tous les hommes qui, depuis la Révolution Française, ont acquis de la célébrité, 20 vols. [Paris, 1820–25], 17:50, 52–3).