Historic book by Thomas Jefferson donated to the VA Library

It was a typical Bob Gilson Friday: elbow-deep in donation boxes for the Virginia Beach Public Library, his hands covered in a layer of dust from some of the old gifts.

One Friday in particular, however, a certain book caught his eye.

“The cover was tired and dusty,” Gilson, a board member of the nonprofit Friends of Virginia Beach Public Library, said in a July 18 press release. “But I felt it was special.”

It was one of an estimated 82 copies of Thomas Jefferson’s book “Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia from 1730 to 1740 and from 1769 to 1772,” according to the release. It was published by Jefferson’s grandson in 1829.

Gilson told The Virginian-Pilot the book was worth around $9,800.

“We’ve received other valuable books over the years, but $9,800 is a gem,” Gilson told The Virginian-Pilot.

Instead of selling the rare book in the library’s bookstore, the nonprofit chose to donate it to the Jefferson Library of Monticello in Charlottesville.

The Jefferson Library had a reprint of the book, but it was its first edition from 1829, which was exciting, the library told The Virginian-Pilot.

“As these colonial court decisions do not survive elsewhere, this Jefferson compilation is essentially the first volume of court reports for the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Leslie G. Bowman, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, said in the statement. . “In particular, 23 of the 42 cases involve slavery in some way, usually in disputes over ownership.”

The book is available for online viewing, frayed pages and all. In his preface, Jefferson explained why he felt the records of court cases should be saved.

“As precedents, they authoritatively established the construction of our own laws and gave them the form and meaning under which our property has been passed on, and is regulated and held to this day,” Jefferson wrote. “These decisions therefore deserved to be preserved.”