J. Philip Reibelt, a Swiss who came to the United States circa 1803 and in 1804 settled in Baltimore as a bookdealer and importer. Jefferson bought a number of books from him, for which see the Index. In 1806 Reibelt left Baltimore and settled in New Orleans.
The Empress Catherine’s opinion of the American Revolution and of George Washington is given in a note on page 121 of the
first volume. Two additional volumes of this work were published in 1802, 3. The name of the author is given in the last volume
of the second edition, from which some of the more secret of the memoirs were omitted.
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112
Histoire de Catharine II. par Austera.
3. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 11. no. 116, Histoire de Catharine II, par Castera, 3 v 8vo.
CASTÉRA,
Jean Henri.
Histoire de Catherine II, Impératrice de Russie. Par J. Castéra . . . Avec seize Portraits ou Cartes, gravés en taille-douce. Tome Premier [-Troisième].
Paris: chez
F. Buisson, An
VIII. [1800.]
3 vol. 8vo. vol. I, 228 leaves; 6 engraved plates including the portrait frontispiece; vol. II, 208 leaves, 4 engraved plates
of portraits; publisher’s advertisement on the back of the half-title; vol. III, 256 leaves, engraved portraits, folded engraved
map.
Quérard II, page 77.
Bibliothèque Imperiale de St. Petersbourg I, page 205, no. 188.
Bought from
Reibelt in 1804, billed on January 23, 1805:
Hist. de Catherine II. Austera. 6. 78. In his manuscript catalogue Jefferson follows Reibelt’s spelling of the author’s name. The name is correctly printed in the Library of Congress catalogues.
Catherine II was the only exception made by Jefferson in his anti-monarchical diatribe written to Governor John Langdon of
New Hampshire from Monticello on March 5, 1810: “
. . . there remained then none but old Catharine who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense . . .”
Catherine II, 1729-1796, empress of Russia.
Jean Henri Castéra, born c. 1755, French author and translator. This work was first published in 1797 with the title
Vie de Catherine II . . . and contains references to the American Revolutionary War and to John Paul Jones and his employment by Catherine.
[250]
113
Tooke’s life of Catharine II.
2. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 14. no. 115, as above.
TOOKE,
William.
The Life of Catharine II, Empress of all the Russias: with an elegant Portrait of the Tzarina, and a correct Map of the Russian
Empire. By W. Tooke, F.R.S. Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and of the Free Economical Society of St. Petersburg.
First American Edition. Vol. I [-II].
Philadelphia: Published by
William Fry.
H. Maxwell, Printer,
1802.
DK170 .T6
2 vol. 8vo. in fours. vol. I, 285 leaves; engraved portrait frontispiece by D. Edwin, folded engraved map; vol. II, 286 leaves; engraved plate with musical notation; the last sheet with the List of Subscribers,
which includes Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.
This edition not in Lowndes.
Not in Sabin.
This edition not in the Catalogue of the Bibiliothèque
[
sic
--
Ed.
] Imperiale Publique de St. Petersburg.
This work is on most of Jefferson’s recommended reading lists in history.
William Tooke, 1744-1820, English historian of Russia, was for a time chaplain to the English merchants in St. Petersburg. His
Life of Catharine II is founded on that of Castéra, and was first published in London in 1798.
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