2 vol. 12mo. No copy of this edition has been traced for collation. It is not in the National Union Catalog, and not in any
of the bibliographies consulted.
Jefferson bought 2 editions of Télémaque from
Froullé in Paris in 1789, one in 2 volumes, 12mo, bound, on March 26, price
5, which may have been this copy, the other on June 13, price
3.
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J.3
The adventures of Telemachus by Littlebury & Boyer.
2. v.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 139, no. 11, as above, but adding
Eng. after
Telemachus.
FÉNÉLON,
François de Salignac de la Motte.
The Adventures of Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses. In
xxiv Books. Written by the Archbishop of Cambray. To which is added The Adventures of Aristonous. Done into
English by Mr. Littlebury and Mr. Boyer. Adorn’d with Twenty-four Plates, and a Map of Telemachus’s Travels, all curiously Engraved by very good Hands. The
Sixteenth Edition, Carefully Revised and Corrected. Vol. I. [--The Adventures of Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses. The
Seventeenth Edition, Carefully Revised and Corrected. Vol. II. To which are added, The Adventures of Aristonous.]
London: Printed for
W. Meadows [and others],
m.dcc.lix
. [1759.]
Class 35
2 vol. 12mo. 298 and 156 leaves, engraved portrait of Fénélon as frontispiece to Vol. I, 24 engraved plates (a plate for each book), engraved map;
The Adventures of Aristonous at the end of the second volume is preceded by a leaf headed
The Bookseller to the Reader. The Advertisement at the beginning of Vol. I is signed by A. Boyer, and dated from Covent Garden, London, Oct. 14, 1718; Boyer’s advertisement is followed by a poem with caption title
An Allusion to the Archbp. of Cambray’s Telemachus, in Imitation of Homer. Written in the Year 1707. by the late Duke of Devonshire;
this is followed by
A Discourse upon Epick Poetry, and the Excellence of the Poem of Telemachus
[by A. M. Ramsay].
This edition not in Quérard.
This edition not in Lowndes and not in the Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit.
Rebound in half red morocco by the Library of Congress, and with the 1822 bookplate, with chapter and number in each volume;
some leaves stained. With the autograph signature of Martha Skelton on each title page; not initialled by Jefferson.
This book came into Jefferson’s library on his marriage, on January 1, 1772, to Martha [Wayles] Skelton, the widow of Bathurst
Skelton.
Isaac Littlebury, fl. 1699-1709, English clergyman. In his Advertisement concerning this English version, Abel Boyer explains that the first
English version was the “Performance of the late ingenious Mr. Littlebury, Mr. Alexander Oldes, and myself. As the first French Edition of Telemachus was divided into Five Books, which came out at different Times, Mr.
Littlebury translated only the first Part; and did it so well, that it was a Misfortune for the Publick, that his ill State
of Health did not permit him to go on with the rest. Upon his declining it, and at the Bookseller’s earnest Desire, I undertook
the Task: But not having then sufficient Time to spare from other Business, I divided it with Mr. Oldes, who translated the
fourth and fifth Parts; as I did the second, and most Part of the third. These Particulars I think fit to mention, both that
my fellow-Translators may have the Praise due to their Performances, and, at the same time, that I bear no more Blame, than
in justice lies at my own Door . . .”
Abel Boyer, 1667-1729, A French Huguenot [font
sic--
Ed.] by birth, went to England to live in 1689. His first edition of the translation of Fénélon’s work was printed in 1728. For
other works by him, see the Index.
Alexander Oldes, was probably Alexander Oldys, author of an
Ode on the death of Dryden
, 1700, and a few novels.
For other works by Andrew Michael Ramsay, the author of
A Discourse on Epick Poetry in the first volume, see the Index.
Martha Skelton Jefferson, 1749-1782, the eldest daughter of John Wayles, had married Bathurst Skelton at the age of eighteen,
and was widowed within three years. This is the only book in the Library of Congress with her autograph signatures on the
title-pages.
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