"Of the ... grave no trace remains, though the burial is well attested. It was that of Mrs. Philip Mazzei, the wife of a Florentine merchant and traveler who came to Virginia in 1773, bringing with him a group of vignerons to establish an indigenous wine industry. Mr. Jefferson, becoming interested in him had helped him to establish himself at Colle, south-west of Monticello on the slope of Carter's Mountain. Mrs. Mazzei died there in 1788 while both Jefferson and Mazzei were in Europe, for her son-in-law J. P. P. de Rieux wrote Mr. Jefferson from Colle, 'ce 28 Janvier 1788, Mde. Mazzei vient de mourir apres six jours de maladie....' We may wonder why she was buried at Monticello instead of at Colle, but that she was, is evident from a letter written by Mr. Jefferson, April 22, 1796, in response to one from Mazzei in Europe who wanted documentary evidence to facilitate his re-marriage. Jefferson wrote, 'I will forward the testimonial of the death of Mrs. Mazzei, which I can do the more incontrovertably as she is buried in my graveyard and I pass her grave daily'."

SOURCE: Robert H. Kean, "History of the Graveyard at Monticello." Reprinted from The Collected Papers of the Monticello Association Volume I, pp. 3-26. Copyright 1965, The Monticello Association.

"Of the ... grave no trace remains, though the burial is well attested. It was that of Mrs. Philip Mazzei, the wife of a Florentine merchant and traveler who came to Virginia in 1773, bringing with him a group of vignerons to establish an indigenous wine industry. Mr. Jefferson, becoming interested in him had helped him to establish himself at Colle, south-west of Monticello on the slope of Carter's Mountain. Mrs. Mazzei died there in 1788 while both Jefferson and Mazzei were in Europe, for her son-in-law J. P. P. de Rieux wrote Mr. Jefferson from Colle, 'ce 28 Janvier 1788, Mde. Mazzei vient de mourir apres six jours de maladie....' We may wonder why she was buried at Monticello instead of at Colle, but that she was, is evident from a letter written by Mr. Jefferson, April 22, 1796, in response to one from Mazzei in Europe who wanted documentary evidence to facilitate his re-marriage. Jefferson wrote, 'I will forward the testimonial of the death of Mrs. Mazzei, which I can do the more incontrovertably as she is buried in my graveyard and I pass her grave daily'."

SOURCE: Robert H. Kean, "History of the Graveyard at Monticello." Reprinted from The Collected Papers of the Monticello Association Volume I, pp. 3-26. Copyright 1965, The Monticello Association.