Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1

29th

31st. Thursday.

30th. Wednesday. JQA

1782-01-30

30th. Wednesday. Adams, John Quincy
30th. Wednesday.

Went to the Shops, bought this book,1 with some other matters. Began to translate Cicero's first Catilinary.2 Finish'd Hume's first volume of the History of England 503. Pages.

1.

That is, his Diary booklet, D/JQA/5.

2.

Probably the edition JQA used for his translations into French was Selectae . . . Orationes . . ., Paris, 1747, p. 510–525, in which JQA has inscribed “J.Q.Adams, a present from Mr. Cussy rendered Cressy in Catalogue of JQA's Books , p. 90,” possibly the same man whom he mentions in his Diary on 11 March but who is otherwise unidentified. This edition of Cicero, now among JQA's books at MQA, contains the same internal divisions of chapters and sections found in his translation of the first Catilinary in M/JQA/45, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 240. In fact, the four Catilinaries which JQA mentions in this and subsequent entries, as judged from JQA's translations, are from this printed source (p. 510–563). The pages in Selectae . . . Orationes bear MS markings by JQA presumably made while he was translating.