The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 3, January 16, 2005, Article 20

ISAAC NEWTON LIBRARY ON THE MOVE?

One item which didn't make last week's issue appeared in
last Sunday's Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The article was later
published by the Associated Press, and Dick Johnson
forwarded a copy. It relates to Isaac Newton.

"Pittsburgh is a leading candidate to land a library and
institute now located at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology that would bring to this city one of the nation's
pre-eminent collections on the history of science and technology.

The 50,000 rare books, 30,000 secondary titles and
assorted other materials include one of the world's three
greatest assemblages of works by and about Sir Isaac
Newton. They are contained in the Burndy Library, which
is weighing a move to another city now that an agreement
that has kept it on MIT's Cambridge, Mass., campus
since 1992 will end in August 2007."

"The Burndy Library was established in 1941 to accommodate
holdings of the late Bern Dibner, a wealthy Ukrainian-born
engineer, author and philanthropist whose fascination with
Leonardo da Vinci spurred him to become an avid collector.
The various items Dibner amassed, including manuscripts and
artifacts like early microscopes, are rivaled by only a couple
of other collections in the United States, said Ronald Brashear
head of special collections at the Smithsonian Libraries, part
of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C."

"Around 1930, Dibner purchased a book about the history
of invention and became fascinated by da Vinci, according
to the Dibner Institute's Web site. Before too long, Dibner
was acquiring rare books and other items not only on da
Vinci but also on the Renaissance and other aspects of
science and technology dating from the 15th century to
modern time."

"Instead of going out and becoming a playboy, what he
did was go out and become a historian of science,"
Cronenwett said. "He had a consuming passion, and it
was to be absolutely certain that, in the future, people
knew what the history of science and technology was
all about."

To read the full article (registration required): Full Story

[That's my story! Instead of becoming a Playboy,
I collected all this numismatic literature!

I was unaware that such a trove of Newtoniana was
in the U.S. I wonder how much of the material (if any)
is related to Newton's tenure at the Royal Mint? -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum