5
Tracts in the arts. dance. copy
g machine. Shorthand. Blanchard.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 54. no. 44, Tracts in the Arts, Short Hand, Copying Machine, Blanchard, Dance, 8vo.
These four tracts were bound together for Jefferson in the order named by him above.
i.
DANSE,
par St. Mery
.
Neither the 1849 catalogue, from which the entry is taken, nor the other early Library catalogues give any indication as to
which edition was in Jefferson’s Library. In view of the fact that the first edition was published in Philadelphia, and that
its title begins with the word
Danse, changed in the later edition to
De la Danse, it seems probable that Jefferson may have had the
first edition, whose title reads as follows:
Danse. Article extrait d’un ouvrage de M. L. E. Moreau de St. Mery. Ayant pour titre: Répertoire des notions coloniales. Par ordre alphabétique. A
Philadelphie. Imprimé par l’Auteur, Imprimeur Libraire . . .
1796.
This edition is not in Beaumont, A Bibliography of Dancing, whose first listed edition is the Bondoni edition of 1801. In his note to the Bondoni edition Bissainthe writes: Ouvrage composé en 1789; rarissisme; fut, dit-on imprimé en 12 exemplaires; on ne connait plus la Ière éd. publiée en 1797, prob. à Paris.
Médéric Louis Elie Moreau de St. Méry, 1750-1819, French avocat, was born in Martinique, and was a distant relative of the Empress Josephine. He spent part of
his life in the West Indies, and while in Saint Dominigue
[
sic
--
Ed.
] discovered the tomb of Christopher Columbus, which he restored at his own expense. For a few years he lived in Philadelphia,
where he had a book shop and a printing press. Later the author went to live in Parma, where this book, largely an essay on
creole dancing, and dedicated to the Creoles, was reprinted in 1801 by Bodoni, with a shortened title:
De la Danse. Par Moreau de Saint-Méry, Conseiller d’État, Membre de plusieurs Sociétés Savantes et Littéraires.
[1131]
ii. WATT,
James.
Invention of a new method of copying letters and other writings expeditiously.
James Watt, 1736-1819, Scottish engineer and the inventor of the steam engine, took out a patent for his copying machine in 1780. Accounts
of it are to be found in the technical and scientific publications of that time, but no separate pamphlet on the subject has
been located.
[1132]
iii. CAREY,
John.
The System of Short-hand, practised by Mr. Thomas Lloyd, in taking down the debates of Congress; and now (with his permission)
published for general use, by J. C.
Entered according to act of Congress, and sold by
H. and P. Rice,
Philadelphia,
1793.
Z56 .S99
First Edition. 12mo. 9 leaves, 3 plates. The first leaf is for the list of subscribers, which includes Thomas Jefferson, Secretary
of State; the accompanying statement of J. C. is dated January 15, 1793.
Evans 25252.
Westby-Gibson, page 117.
John Carey, 1756-1826, Irish teacher of classics, French and shorthand in London, was a brother of Mathew Carey, the Philadelphia publisher
and author. In the Massachusetts Historical Society (Coolidge Collection) is a page of Lloyd’s shorthand in Jefferson’s autograph.
[1133]
iv. BLANCHARD,
Jean Pierre.
Journal of my Forty-fifth Ascension, being the first performed in America, on the Ninth of January, 1793 . . .
Philadelphia: Printed by
Charles Cist,
1793.
TL620 .B6 A4
