Jean Potocki to Thomas Jefferson, 19 August 1810
From Jean Potocki
Petersbourg le 19 Aout 1810.
Votre Excellence
ayant bien voulu témoigner de l’Estime pour mes ouvrages je la prie de vouloir bien agreer le present exemplaire; qui contient toute ma doctrine Chronologique.
J’ai plusieurs renseignements à demander sur l’Amérique, et Si votre Excellence vouloit entrer en correspondance avec moi, de la prierois de me faire parvenir sa réponse par le canal de Consul Américain Levet harris. Je suis avec une haute considération
le Comte Jean Potocki
Editors’ Translation
Saint Petersburg 19 August 1810.
Your Excellency
Having been so kind as to give evidence of your regard for my writings, I ask your Excellency to accept the enclosed work, which contains all my thoughts on chronology.
I have several questions to ask about America, and if your Excellency were willing to enter into correspondence with me, I would respectfully ask your Excellency to reply care of the American consul, Levett Harris. I am with the highest consideration
Count Jean Potocki
RC (MHi); dateline at foot of text; endorsed by TJ as received 13 Mar. 1811 and so recorded in SJL. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene. Enclosure: Potocki, Principes de Chronologie, pour les Temps Antérieurs aux Olympiades (Saint Petersburg, 1810; no. 4). Enclosed in Levett Harris to TJ, 25 Sept. 1810, and Dominick Barthe to TJ, 8 Mar. 1811.
Jean Potocki (1761–1815) was a Polish writer, political activist, and ethnographer. An honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Science in Saint Petersburg, his literary productions included travel accounts, several histories, a play, and a picaresque novel that won some posthumous acclaim (Édouard Krakowski, Le comte Jean Potocki [1963]; Potocki, The Manuscript Found In Saragossa, ed. Ian Maclean [1995], esp. xi–xviii; nos. 2–4, 248; Levett Harris to TJ, 24 July 1807 [DLC]).
Levett harris had recently sent TJ another copy of all or part of the enclosed historical work (Harris to TJ, 13 June 1810).
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