NEW YORK, December 2, 2002 The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University will be showing a selection from one of its great hidden treasures: a collection on all aspects of the history of mathematics formed by David Eugene Smith. Among the items on display will be an Italian astrolabe dated 1558, an Indian astrolabe with Sanscrit inscriptions dated ca. 1715, an armilary sphere dated ca. 1550, a Japanese papier-maché celestial globe dated ca. 1600, an Indo-Persian bronze and silver celestial globe made in 1645/46, various kinds of sundials dating from the 16th through the 19th century, 17th century Italian sector compasses, an 18th century German geometric square, and a drawing of a compass rose attributed to Galileo. The exhibit is on display from December 6, 2002 through February 28, 2003 (Butler Library, 6th Floor, East) and is free and open to the public during normal library hours. Extended until March 7, 2003
"The Ground of Artes": Exhibit of Mathematical Instruments and Illustrated Books from Columbia's David Eugene Smith Collection
The books in the exhibit have been chosen to show illustrations of the instruments themselves and how they were used. They include a manuscript of Sacro Bosco's De sphaera, (France? ca. 1450), the first edition of Stoeffler's work on the astrolabe (1513), Apianus's Cosmographiae (Venice, 1533), Sebastian Munster's Horologiographia (Basel, 1533), Tycho Brahe's Astronomiae instauratae mechanica (Nuremberg, 1602), Galileo's works on the sector compass (Padua, 1640), Moxon's Mechanick dyalling (London, 1692), Gunter's Description and use of the sector, the crosse-staffe and other instruments (London, 1624), and Martin's Description and use of an universal sliding rule (London, 1760).
Born in 1860, David Eugene Smith was professorof mathematics at Teachers College from 1901 untilhis death in 1944, serving as Teachers College librarian from 1902until 1920. He was passionate about the teaching of mathematics;was the author of Rara Arithmetica (1907) still the definitivebibliography of pre-1601 mathematics books, a still-useful textbookentitled The History of Mathematics (1924), and many other works onrelated subjects; and served as editor of the Bulletin of theAmerican Mathematical Society, the American Mathematical Monthly,and Scripta Mathematica.
When Smith began giving his collection to the Columbia University Libraries in 1931, it included 12,000 printed books on the history of mathematics, ranging from the 15th through the 20th century. It also included 35 boxes of historical documents relating to mathematics; 140 boxes of his own professional papers; 350 volumes of western European manuscripts dating from the 15th to the early 20th century; 670 volumes of Oriental (primarily Arabic and Persian) manuscripts dating from the 8th to the early 20th century; 88 volumes of Chinese manuscripts; 363 volumes of Japanese manuscripts; 3,000 prints portraits of mathematicians; and some 300 mathematical instruments and related objects.
The Rare Book and Manuscript Library, located on the 6th Floor East of the Columbia University Butler Library, at 535 West 114th Street at Broadway, New York, is home to over 600,000 rare books, 28 million manuscripts filed in 3,000 separate collections, 75,000 photographs, and 40,000 prints and drawings. In addition to printed and manuscript resources, the library contains cuneiform tablets, papyri, maps, works of art, posters, sound recordings and other interesting objects and materials. The Library's website has collections and service information.
For additional information:
Jennifer B. Lee
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
212-854-4048
jbl100@columbia.edu
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rev. 12/02/02 KRS