<http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-180.html>

The Brown University Library has acquired the library of the late David
E. Pingree, an internationally renowned scholar of the history of
mathematics. The collection, consisting of more than 22,000 materials,
is a remarkable resource for the study of mathematics in the ancient
world, in particular India, and the relationship of Eastern mathematics
to the development of mathematics and related disciplines in the West.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Brown University Library has
acquired the library of the late David E. Pingree, an internationally
renowned historian of the exact sciences in antiquity and a member of
the Brown faculty from 1971 to 2005. Pingree was chair of Brown’s
Department of History of Mathematics and a University Professor.

Reflecting his scholarly interests, the collection focuses on the study
of mathematics and exact sciences in the ancient world, especially
India, and the relationship of Eastern mathematics to the development
of mathematics and related disciplines in the West. The collection
contains some 22,000 volumes and a number of other publications and
manuscripts. The holdings consist of both antiquarian and recent
materials published in Sanskrit, Arabic, Hindi, and Western languages
as well as microfilm and photocopies of manuscript material from around
the world, much of which is now lost in its original format.

“David Pingree was for many years a prominent member of our Brown
University faculty with worldwide respect as the absolute leader in his
field,” said Thomas Banchoff, the Royce Family Professor in Teaching
Excellence in the Department of Mathematics. “His working collection of
materials on the history of mathematics is unique and unparalleled.”
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The Pingree Collection will add a new dimension to Brown’s important
holdings in mathematics. With faculty support dating to the early 20th
century, the Brown University Library has built a strong mathematics
collection in both contemporary and antiquarian material, focused
primarily on the Western tradition from Euclid to the present. In
addition to important printed texts, Brown owns the archive of the
American Mathematical Society.

The recipient of many honors, Pingree was among the first group of
MacArthur Fellows in 1981 and used a portion of his award to support
the library and the teaching of Sanskrit at Brown. “It is therefore
only fitting that his remarkable collection should find its home at
Brown’s John Hay and John D. Rockefeller Jr. libraries,” said Harriette
Hemmasi, the Joukowsky Family University Librarian at Brown University.

The antiquarian books and manuscripts, along with the photocopies, will
be administered by Brown’s Special Collections Library, with most of
the remainder being incorporated into the circulating collections.