74 of Thomas Jefferson’s books identified at Washington University library | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis
74 of Thomas Jefferson’s books identified at Washington University library | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Washington University in St. Louis announced the discovery by Monticello scholars that a collection of books, long held in the libraries at Washington University in St. Louis, originally were part of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library.
These books, held at the university’s libraries for 131 years, have been confirmed by Monticello scholars as having belonged to Thomas Jefferson himself. They are part of the university’s rare books collection, and were not identified by the books’ donor in 1880 as a part of Jefferson’s personal collection.
Monticello scholars identified several notable books among the 28 titles and 74 volumes, including:
- Aristotle’s Politica, which was likely one of the last books Jefferson read before his death on July 4, 1826.
- Architecture books used by Jefferson to design the University of Virginia, which, like Monticello, is recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site. Two of these volumes, Freart de Chambray’s Parallele de l’architecture antique avec la moderneand Andrea Palladio’s Architecture de Palladio, contenant les cinq ordres d'architecture contain a few notes and calculations made by Jefferson.
- A small scrap of paper with Greek notes in Jefferson’s hand tucked in a volume of Plutarch’s Lives.
