Rebound in half red morocco. This volume has lost all marks of Jefferson’s ownership, but seems to have been from his library. The number 12 is written in ink on the title-page, and there are a few marginal corrections which may be by the author. With a late Library of Congress bookplate.

Uniformly rebound with the previous entry in half red morocco, initialled by Jefferson at sig. I and T in both volumes and with the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate preserved.

Charles Burney, 1726-1814, English musical historian and composer, was for a time a pupil of Dr. Arne. He composed a great deal of music, including anthems, music for the drama and concertos for the harpsichord. In 1770 he left London for his tour of France and Italy to obtain the necessary background for his History of Music . In 1772, after publishing The Present State of Music in France and Italy , Burney again went to the Continent for his tour of Germany and the Netherlands, and published the account in two volumes in 1773.

Jefferson had made Burney’s acquaintance when in London, and desired to consult him on the purchase of a harpsichord and of an organ. On May 25, 1786, therefore, he wrote from Paris to John Paradise: “ . . . I have yet another favour to ask which is to get Kirkman to make for me one of his best harpsichords with a double set of keys, and the machine on the top resembling a Venetian blind for giving a swell. the case to be of mahogany, solid not vineered, without any inlaid work but deriving all its beauty from the elegance of the wood. I would wish entirely to avoid a complication of stops, wishing to have such only as are most simple & least liable to be put out of order as the instrument is to go to a country and to a situation where there will be no workman but myself to put it in order. when done I shall be glad to have a celestini apparatus put to it by m ( ^~ r) Walker. I hope by that time he will have brought to perfection some method of giving it movement by a spring or a weight, or by some other mover than the foot or hand. I confide so much in D ^r. Burney’s judgment & knowlege of musical instruments, and his interest too with Kirkman, that tho’ I have no right to ask either myself, from the momentary, yet pleasing, acquaintance I contracted with him, I will however, resort to your better acquaintance to interest him in advising or directing for the best. on receiving advice of the time when the instrument will be ready, I will take care to place the money in time in London & to direct it’s package & conveiance . . . ”

On June 19, Burney wrote to Paradise: “I beg you will acquaint M ^r. Jefferson that he flatters me very much by his remembrance, & that I shall have great pleasure in executing the commission with Kirkman. I went to him immediately on receiving your note, and have bespoke a double Harpsichord of him, which is to fulfill, as nearly as possible, every Idea & wish contained in M ^r. Jefferson’s letter. The Machine for the swell, resembling a Venetian-blind, will be applied; the stops & machinery ”