Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, an Inquiry Into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of All Nations, Concerning the Origin of the World

It was at Montpelier that Madison researched ancient confederacies in preparation for the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787. His surviving notes cite the sources he consulted, providing an outline of the works in his early library. To these he added volumes purchased in Philadelphia, Williamsburg, and Fredericksburg, as well as books he requested from Thomas Jefferson, then serving in Paris. Madison’s Montpelier library, which contained more than 4,000 volumes, was supplemented throughout his long public career by gifts of pamphlets, printed floor speeches, works of fiction, and international treatises on geography, agriculture, science, history, and religion.

In 1823, Thomas Jefferson asked Madison to compile a list of theological texts to be incorporated into the University of Virginia’s library. This particular book, like many from Madison’s library, bears his name on the upper right-hand corner of the title page; in it, theologian, Thomas Burnet considered whether the fall of man was a symbolic rather than literal event.