3
Not in the Manuscript Catalogue.
1815 Catalogue, page 53. no. 39, Cadmus, or on the Elements of Written Language, by Thornton, 8vo.
THORNTON,
William.
Prize Dissertation, which was honored with the Magellanic Gold Medal, by the American Philosophical Society, January, 1793.
Cadmus: or, a Treatise on the Elements of Written Language . . . With an Essay on the mode of teaching the surd or deaf, and
consequently dumb, to speak. By William Thornton, M.D. Member of the Societies of Scots Antiquaries of Edinburgh and Perth; the Medical Society, and the Society of Natural
Hist. of Edin: the American Philosophical Society, &c.
Philadelphia: Printed by
R. Aitken & Son,
1793.
P225 .T5
First Edition. 56 leaves, folded table.
Sabin 95646.
Evans 25258.
Cadmus is entered by Jefferson in his manuscript catalogue, as the first entry in his chapter 45, Criticism. It is reentered without number in the Library of Congress 1815 Catalogue as the first entry in Chapter 43, Criticism--Languages.
Jefferson’s copy was a presentation from the author, to whom he wrote from Philadelphia on June 11, 1793: “
Th: Jefferson, with his compliments to D
r. Thornton returns him many thanks for the device of the Mace, & still more for his dissertation on the elements of language
which he had read in manuscript with great satisfaction, but shall do it with more in print.
”
William Thornton, 1759-1828, doctor, architect, inventor and public official was born in the Virgin Islands and educated in England and Scotland.
He came to the United States in 1787, in 1794 was appointed one of the commissioners of the city of Washington, and in 1802
was appointed by Jefferson clerk in the State Department in charge of patents. As an architect he was in part responsible
for the design of the Capitol. Cadmus is printed in the third volume of the
Transactions of the Philosophical Society
.
[1126]
1
Shelton’s Tachygraphy.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 54. no. 8, as above.
SHELTON,
Thomas.
Tachy-Graphy. The most exact and compendious methode of short and swift writing that hath ever yet been published by any.
Composed by Thomas Shelton Authour and Professour of the said Art. Approved by both the universities.
Printed at
London by
R. C. [Richard Cotes] for
Samuel Cartwright,
1646.
Z56 .S545
Sm. 8vo. 28 leaves: A-C
8, D
4, 11 plates of writing, some with blank reverses, engraved title on the verso of the last leaf, commendatory verses at the
beginning. The copy in the Library of Congress is dated 1646 on the title-page, as above, and was probably the edition owned
by Jefferson; at the foot of the recto of the last leaf is the colophon, dated 1645; the imprint at the foot of the engraved
title on the verso of that leaf is dated 1647.
This edition not in Lowndes, Hazlitt nor Westby-Gibson.
This edition not in Johnson,
Catalogue of Engraved and etched English title-pages.
STC S3079A. This is the only copy located in STC.
In a letter to John Page, dated from “
Devilsburg”, on January 23, 1764, Jefferson wrote: “
. . . We must fall on some scheme of communicating our thoughts to each other, which shall be totally unintelligible to every
one but to ourselves. I will send you some of these days Shelton’s Tachygraphical Alphabet, and directions . . .
”
In a letter to Daniel Humphreys, who had sent him a manuscript on stenography, Jefferson wrote on September 28, 1820: “
. . . accident threw Shelton’s tachygraphy into my way when young, and I practised it thro’ life. altho it had serious defects,
I have not looked into any other with fewer . . .
”
Thomas Shelton, 1601-1650? English stenographer. It was in his system of
Tachygraphy that Samuel Pepys wrote his Diary.
[1127]
