Égide Norbert Cornelissen (1769–1849), author, public official, and botanist, was born in Antwerp. He was educated in local common schools before matriculating at the University of Leuven. Cornelissen left the university without completing his studies, joined the Belgian army, and fought in the Brabant Revolution. When France regained control of Belgium in 1794, he became a teacher in Paris and then in Brussels. By 1797 Cornelissen began a career in the Belgian government, often anonymously composing speeches for other officials in addition to writing his own pieces on science and literature. His works appeared in such journals as the Annuaire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Cornelissen was a knight of the Order of Leopold and a member of several scientific and literary societies, including the Société Royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique and the Société des Beaux-Arts à Gand. At the University of Ghent he was adjunct secretary beginning in 1817, with promotion to secretary-inspector in 1821. Cornelissen retired from public life in 1835 and died in Ghent (Adolphe Quetelet, “Notice sur Égide-Norbert Cornelissen,” Annuaire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique 17 [1851]: 77–119; Journal d’Agriculture Pratique, d’Économie Forestière, d’Économie Rurale et d’Éducation des Animaux Domestiques 8 [1856]: v–xv).

Bernard Eugène Antoine Rottiers (1771–1857), soldier and antiquarian, was a native of Antwerp who embarked on a military career that included service in the Austrian, French, British, Dutch, and Russian armies. Retiring from such endeavors in 1818, he continued to travel extensively, with expeditions to excavate and collect antiquities in Turkey and Greece. Rottiers sold portions of his collections to the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. He described his finds in Itinéraire de Tiflis à Constantinople (1829) and Description des Monumens de Rhodes (1830). Rottiers died in Brussels (Ruurd B. Halbertsma, Scholars, Travellers and Trade: The Pioneer Years of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, 1818–1840 [2003], 49–70, 166–7).

The Société Royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique de Gand was founded as the Société d’Agriculture et de Botanique de Gand in 1808 and mounted its first plant exhibition in 1809. In 1816 the association’s name was amended to include “Royale,” under which designation it still functions today (Joseph van Damme-Sellier, Histoire de la Société Royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique de Gand [1861], 20, 22, 27).

TJ was named comme membre of the Société Royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique at the organization’s 1817 meeting in Ghent, along with Henry Clay and other foreigners. On 22 June of that year TJ’s nomination was deferred with the following explanation: “Sur l’observation d’un membre que la Société, n’ayant encore pu recevoir la réponse si Mr. Jefferson lui faisait l’honneur d’accepter, il était convenable de différer, la Commission s’est rendue à cet avis; mais elle a désiré que, non-obstant cette observation, son vœu resterait consigné au procès-verbal de ce jour, comme un témoignage d’estime et de respect” (“A member remarked that, the Society having as yet been unable to receive an answer as to whether Mr. Jefferson did it the honor of accepting, it was proper to defer. The committee agreed, but wished that, notwithstanding this observation, its desire would remain recorded in the day’s minutes, as a testimony of esteem and respect”) (Salon d’Été. XVIIme Exposition Publique de la Société Royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique de la Ville de Gand, 29 et 30 Juin, 1 et 2 Juillet [Ghent, (1817)]).

The enclosed notices likely included an extract from the minutes of the society, 26 Jan. 1817, reading “La Société, dans la vue d’étendre ses relations, et de s’associer des hommes qui ont rendu de grands services à l’agriculture, à nommé Membre Associé Correspondant Mr Jefferson, ancien Président des Etats-Unis, Cultivateur à Monticello; en conséquence des fleurs seront exposés sous son nom dans chacun des deux salons, qui sont ouverts pendant la saison d’hiver et celle d’été” (“The Society, with a view to expanding its relationships and associating itself with men who have rendered great services to agriculture, has appointed as a corresponding associate member Mr. Jefferson, former president of the United States, farmer at Monticello; accordingly flowers will be displayed under his name at each of the two exhibitions, which are open during the winter and summer”) (Tr in DLC; entirely in Jean Baptiste Delbecq’s hand and signed by him; at head of text: “Extrait du Registre aux delibérations de la Société Royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique de Gand”).

les champs où fut troÿe (“iam seges est, ubi Troia fuit” [“Now are fields of corn where Troy once was”]) is from Ovid, Heroides, 1.53 (Ovid, Loeb Classical Library, trans. Grant Showerman [1914–29; rev. George P. Goold, 1977–79], 14–5).