86
Histoire de L’Etude.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 11. no. 106a, Histoire de Latude, 8vo.
[LATUDE,
Jean Henri Masers de.]
Histoire d’une Détention de Trente-Neuf Ans, dans les Prisons d’État, écrite par le Prisonnier lui-même. A
Amsterdam:
1787.
First Edition. 8vo. 56 leaves: A-G
8.
Barbier II, 660.
Quérard I, 243 and V, 594.
Jefferson’s copy was in his possession before March 1802, at which time it was borrowed from him by Benjamin Rush.
On March 12 Rush wrote to Jefferson: “. . . For several years I have been engaged in investigating the Causes, Seats, and remedies of madness, & other diseases
of the mind. Before I commit the results of my inquiries and Observations to the press, I wish to read every thing that has
been published upon those Subjects. Le Tude’s history of the Bastile, and of a Lunatic hospital in which he was confined under
pretence of madness, I have heard contains many curious facts upon that disease. In my inquiries for this curious book I was
informed that you had a Copy of it. Could you favour me with the reading of it, you would add greatly to my Obligations to
you. It shall be returned in a week or ten days after I receive it . . .”
Exactly one year later on March 12, 1803, Benjamin Rush returned the book: “I return Latude with many thanks. It is I find an Abridgment only of a large work in which is contained an account of a hospital
of deranged people with whom he lived for some time after he left the Bastile.”
After the death of Latude, Jefferson received a copy, at the former’s request. The Postscript of a letter from Fulwar Skipwith
to Jefferson, written from Paris on January 15, 1805, reads: “P.S. Poor old Latude, who passed more than a third of the last century in dungeons & in Irons, & who I believe you know, died
about a month ago. Not long before his death he left with me two of his Books containing the memoirs of his captivity, & two
prints of his picture, requesting that I should forward the whole to you, & that you should present one of each to the House
of Representatives in Congress. I therefore avail myself of the opportunity offered me by M. Randolph of complying with one
of the last & most earnest desires of that singular old man . . .”
In a letter to Maria Cosway, written from Paris on October 12, 1786, Jefferson described his acquaintance with the author,
imprisoned from 1749-1784 for an offence against Madame de Pompadour (q.v. no. 208.): “
De la Tude comes sometimes to take family soupe with me, & entertains me with anecdotes of his five & thirty years imprisonment.
how fertile is the mind of man, which can make the Bastile and dungeon of Vincennes yield interesting anecdotes. You know
this was for making four verses on M
me. de Pompadour . . . I have read the memoir of his three escapes . . .
”
Jean Henri Masers de Latude, 1725-1804, also known as Danry, famous prisoner of the Bastille, is said to have disavowed this work. It is attributed by
Barbier to the Marquis de Beaupoil. Quérard lists the book under Beaupoil, and again under Masers, with reference to the Beaupoil
entry.
Maria Cecilia Louisa Cosway, miniature-painter, was born in Florence of English parents and went to England after the death of the father. In 1781 she married Richard Cosway, English artist. Maria Cosway spent much time in Paris, where she became a great friend of Jefferson, who wrote to her his famous letter of October 12, 1786, giving the dialogue between his head and his heart.
Fulwar Skipwith was a Virginian, and at different times he represented the United States in Paris, Martinique, and other places.
[219]
87
Moore’s Journal of 1792. in France
2. v.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 13. no. 41, as above.
MOORE, John.
A Journal during a Residence in France, from the beginning of August, to the middle of December, 1792, to which is added,
An Account of the most remarkable
