Description:

Thomas Jefferson
London, England, ca. 1718
Jefferson's Owned & Signed "Plutarch's Morals" Vol. 4, Foundational to Declaration of Independence. 1st Time at Auction in Nearly 200 Years!
Signed book

"Plutarch's Morals". Translated from the Greek by Several Hands. Volume IV. London: Printed for W. Taylor, 1718. The Fifth Edition, Corrected. Small octavo: 5-462 pp. From the retirement library of Thomas Jefferson, with his personal mark, a "T" on the "I" leaf (p. 193), and a holographic notation in his hand to the upper margin of the first extant page: "Plutarch's Opuscles by Baxter, Philips, Brown, Oswald, Hersey, White, Smith and others." The contemporary calf binding was re-backed by Thomas Gresham Machen (1886-1975) with a new brown leather spine to which is affixed a black leather spine label stamped in gilt. Exhibits expert repair to the margin of the first extant leaf, not affecting text. Occasional light foxing to interior, with uneven soiling to the last few pages. Calf-covered boards show expected edge wear and scuffing. Housed in a custom marbled paper-covered slipcase, measuring 4.5" x 7" x 1.5" overall.

The Greek philosopher, historian, essayist, and biographer Plutarch (ca. AD 46 - after 119) was perhaps the most widely read ancient writer among the political elite at the dawn of the American experiment. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison all cited him frequently. Adams once lamented to a friend that "we are so bigoted to Thucidies, Livy, Plutarch and Tacitus, Hume Robertson and Gibbon that we read little else." Even Washington, not much of a reader except in a handful of topics that intrigued him, owned a copy of Plutarch's Lives.

Recent scholarship has credited Plutarch with influencing the Founding Fathers' understanding of "the pursuit of happiness as being good, not feeling good - the pursuit of long-term virtue rather than short-term pleasure. For the Founders, personal self-government was necessary for political self-government" (Jeffrey Rosen, Classic Examples, Colonial Williamsburg).

Curiously, the Jefferson handwritten inventory of George Wythe's library lists "[Plutarch's] Morals 4. v. 8vo." and indicates it was given by Thomas Jefferson to his granddaughters, Ann and Ellen Randolph. The precise edition is unknown; however, scholar Bennie Brown lists a fifth edition published in London in 1718, based on a copy owned by Jefferson, in his bibliography, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond" (unpublished, 2012). The 1718 edition of Plutarch's Morals is comprised of five volumes.

Even the Founding Fathers made mistakes, and this is an excellent example of an error that endured for nearly 200 years. It seems likely this volume was missing several leaves at the front and rear when Jefferson acquired it, which explains why he misidentified it as Plutarch's Opuscles. It was simply described as "Plutarch" in the 1829 Nathaniel Poor auction of Jefferson's retirement library, from which it was acquired by Lewis Henry Machen (1790-1863). This error appears alongside the note "from Mr. Jefferson's library, with his autograph" in the Catalogue of the Library of L. H. Machen, which was prepared by his son, Arthur Webster Machen (1827-1915), whose son, the noted architect and book collector Thomas Gresham Machen, rebacked the book in the mid-20th century, adding a spine label with the erroneous title. Interestingly, we find on the original invoice to Machen a set of 6 Cicero books that sold in our June 2025 auction for $112,500! A copy of the Bill and Catalog is included in our scans.

Since the catalog goes up to lot 931, and the invoice is in order of lot numbers and includes both 1004 and 1050 (this item), one can assume that 120-plus books were added at the auction that did not make the print catalog and were addendum. This happens at auctions today, but is even more likely the case in 1829. Still, the reference to this Plutarch on the bill with items that sold that were listed in the catalog, plus the Library of L. H. Machen listing page 15, #188 (2 of our scans), is perfect provenance to the present volume. The listing came down through the family, the living heirs are too far removed to provide any context. We suspect it was prepared after the death of Lewis Henry Machen (1871-1927), as the Library of Congress comes into possession of Machen family material shortly thereafter.

We also are surprised that, in our search, only two single volumes of Jefferson signed books are offered on the market today: one at $80,000 and the other at $97,500. We feel both are inferior in importance and are not annotated like the present example. No comparison!

Provenance:
- Thomas Jefferson
- February 27, 1829: Lewis Henry Machen (1790-1863), a clerk of the United States Senate and farmer in Fairfax County, Virginia, purchased these volumes and several others at the 1829 Nathaniel Poor auction of Thomas Jefferson's retirement library (lot 1050). Machen rescued the records of the U.S. Senate when the British burned much of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812.
- Descendants of Lewis Henry Machen
- University Archives Auction

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 4.5" x 7" x 1.5"
  • Medium: Signed book

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