Dear Readers:
February we traditionally pause to celebrate lovers (Valentine’s Day) and Presidents. Once Abe Lincoln (Feb. 12) and George washington (Feb. 22) were honored individually; now they are collectively celebrated on President’s Day (Feb. 15) this year. Our third President, Thomas Jefferson, had a life long love for Italy and things Italian, as early as 1764 during his col- lege days.
Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia on April 13, 1743 and died on July 4, 1826. He served as our third president form 1801 to 1809. He was 28 years old when he married a young widow, Martha “Patty” wayles, on New Year’s Day 1772. He was nearly 40 when his wife died in 1782. Monticello and Mazzei The inspiration for the lay- out and the architecture of Thomas Jefferson’s mountain- top home, Monticello, are clearly Italian.
There is also ample evidence to suggest that Jefferson’s long conversations with his Florentine-born neighbor, talkative Italian exile-turned-wine menchant named Philip Mazzei, inspired the language used in the Declaration of Independence. In an article translated by Jefferson, Mazzei wrote, “all men are by nature equally free and independent.” Philip Mazzei appeared at Monticello in the winter of 1774, accompanied by Jefferson’s London merchant-agent, Thomas Adams.
He became a houseguest at Monticello, brightening the last two months of 1774, for Jefferson, who had lost his mentally retarded sister Elizabeth (age 29) earlier that year. when a series of earthquakes had rocked the buildings at Monticello on February 21, 1774, Elizabeth had run outdoors in the raw winter weather and confused, wan- dered away. She was found dead three days later.
Mazzei, then 43, had been trained as a surgeon in Florence, worked as a ship’s doctor, then practiced in the Middle East before settling in London, where he had been a wine merchant for many years. A well-known horticulist, he had sailed to Virginia to introduce the culture of grapes, olives and whatever fruit trees would flourish there, and had brought his own crew of Italian vineyard workers with him.
Jefferson indulged some of his favorite activities: building, gardening, buying and selling land. He drew up a charter of a joint stock company for his new friend and neighbor, Philip Mazzei, buying a fifty- pound-sterling share in a scheme to cultivate silk, grow wine grapes, and raise olive trees on the Mazzei’s slopes near Monticello, all without slave labor and relying on Italian vignoble imported from Tuscany.
From April 1774, his notebooks were crammed with plans and expenditures to produce wine in the first large-scale viticulture experiment in North America. That he was not alone in is inability to fore- see events is testified by the other shareholders, who included both George washington and Lord Dunmore. According to local legend, Jefferson was able to greet the thirty vignoble in their own Tuscan accent.
The men, who had heard only English for many months, wept. Jefferson on Wine Jefferson, who seldom dined alone, discovered that fine wines and food were a great way to meet informally with political friends and foes, never talking politics, but dropping a hint here and there of how he felt on a subject. And he used these nightly din- ners as a form of legislative lobbying.
Jefferson’s first exposure to Italian wines had been during his trip into northern Italy in 1787, and he was particularly impressed with those made from the Nebbiolo grape. He served 250 bottles of Nebbiolo while President, but his favorite Italian wine was from the hilltop of Montepulciano located about 40 miles south of Siena in southern Tuscany. From Passion – The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson by James M. Gabler. Jefferson and Women Meeting the beautiful Italian-born Maria Luisa Conway in 1786 rekindled Jefferson’s love for things Italian.
A widow, the celebrated Virginian fell in love with Maria Luisa (Hadfield) Conway the moment they met in early October of 1786, while visiting Paris. According to willard Randall, author of “Thomas Jefferson, A Life,” Maria had been born in Florence, Italy, the daughter of the owner of a resort that catered to English travelers. Her parents were English Protestants, but Maria Luisa learned to speak Italian better than English, and having attended convent schools, soon became a devout Catholic.
When Maria Luisa was 20, her mother, after being offered a lifetime settlement for herself, promised the Botticelli-like beauty in marriage to a wealthy stout suitor twice her age, Richard Conway. Thomas Jefferson had been widowed for four years, faithful to a vow he’d made to his wife on her deathbed that he would never remarry so that their two daughters, Patsy and Polly would not be raised by a stepmother, as she had been.
But no sooner was Jefferson introduced to Maria Luisa than he began to devise how he could spend every possible moment with his lively, beauti- ful lady. Soon he was contriving to develop projects with an “Italian connection” to prevent prolonged separations, for example a possible visit to view art in Maria Luisa’s birth city of Florence, brushing up on his Italian conversations, now rusty since the departure of his neighbor Philip Mazzei.
But Jefferson always had a pragmatic side. Especially after a long series of diplomatic checks in London and at Versailles, he had become determined to break United States economic dependence on England and France by forging new trade ties with Italy.
Especially interested in diversifying plantation agriculture and improving the lot of laborers, black and white, in his native region, Jefferson wrote to Govenor John Rutledge of South Carolina in 1788, shortly after his tour to the Mediterranean, “Italy is a field where the inhabitants of Southern States may see much to copy in agriculture and a country with which we shall carry on considerable trade.”
Unfortunately since Signora Conway inconveniently already had a husband who had business to attend to in England, and since Thomas Jefferson had business in the United States, the romance was just one of those things, and remained just a happy memory for the lifelong Italyophile president.
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Why Is ‘X’ a Kiss? An “X” for a Kiss: Our custom putting Xs at the end of letters and notes to symbolize kisses grew out of medieval legal practices. In order to indi- cate good faith and honesty in those days, the sign of St. Andrew - a cross - was placed after the signature on all important documents. Thereafter, contracts and agreements were not consid- ered binding until each signer added St. Andrew’s cross after his name.
Then he was required to kiss the document to further guarantee faithful performance of his obligations. The cross was drawn hurriedly and often it was tilted and looked much like the letter “X”. Over the centuries, the origin of the ceremony was forgotten. But people still asso- ciated the “X” with the kiss instead of the pledge of good faith, and the custom has con- tinued into modern times.
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The Legend of St. Valentine: Over the years, there have been various versions of how the holiday known as Valentine’s Day came to be. There is one story known as “The Legend of St. Valentine.” This story begins in the third century with an oppres- sive Roman emperor and hum- ble Christian martyr. The emperor was Claudius II.
The Christian was Valentinus. Claudius had ordered all Romans to worship twelve gods, and he had made it a crime punishable by death to associate with Christians. But Valentinus was dedicated to the ideals of Christ, and not even the threat of death could keep him from practicing his beliefs. He was arrested and imprisoned. In prison a remarkable thing happened. Seeing that he was a man of learning, the jailer asked whether his daughter, Julia might be brought to Valentinus for lessons.
She had been blind since birth. Julia was a pretty young girl with a quick mind. Valentinus read stories of Rome’s history to her. He described the world of nature to her. He taught her arithmetic and told her about God. She saw the world through his eyes and trusted him in his quiet strength. “Velentinus, does God real- ly hear our prayers?” Julia asked one day. “Yes, my child, He hears each one,” he replied. “Do you know what I pray for every morning and every night? I pray that I might see.” “God does what he can for us if we will believe in Him,“ Valentinus said.
“Oh, Valentinus, I do believe,” Julia said. “I do.” She knelt and grasped his hand. As they prayed together, a brilliant light flooded the prison cell. Julia cried out, “Valentinus, I can see! I can see!” “Praise be to God!” said Valentinus. On the eve of his death, Valentinus wrote a last note to Julia, urging her to stay close to God, and he signed it “From your Valentine.” His sentence was carried out the next day, February 14, 270 A.D., near a gate that was later named Porta Valentini in his memory.
He was buried at what is now the Church of Praxedes in Rome. It is said that Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship. On each February 14 – St. Valentine’s Day – messages of affection, love and devotion are exchanged around the world.
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Old Italian saying to make the bride and her groom feel better when it rains on their wedding day: “Sposi bagnati, sposi fortunati”. Thomas Jefferson St. Valentine
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