ORIGINAL SOURCE: The William Marshall Bullitt Collection
The first thing you notice about Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium in the University Archives’ Bullitt Collection is that it’s in remarkably good condition for a book that has traveled through the space and time of more than four centuries. Published in 1543, the 458-year-old book put forth the first theory of a heliocentric solar system – rotating around the sun as opposed to the Earth – and contains within its pages the first drawing of Copernicus’s model for that system.
William Marshall Bullitt’s collection of rare mathematic and astronomy books is one of the world’s most extraordinary, and it offers scholars not only a look at the history of math and science scholarship, but that of the past 500 years of book production. The seminal collection houses the principal works of 60 mathematicians and astronomers in 370 titles, including works by Isaac Newton, Euclid, Einstein, Archimedes, and Galileo. The copy of Newton’s Principia Mathematica has notations in the margins in his own hand.
“These are cultural artifacts that have historic, scientific, artistic, and intrinsic value,” said Delinda Stephens Buie, professor and curator of rare books, University Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections. “We have made a conscious decision to not keep these books locked up in a vault. People are consistently surprised – these are books they’ve heard of, and they are permanently here for anyone to see.”
Bullitt began his collection in an attempt to assemble a list of the top 25 books on mathematics – with the help of mathematicians, science historians and booksellers. Realizing that genius is impossible to measure, Bullitt widened his search and began collecting rare and important works by mathematicians and astronomers the world over. Around the same time, he acquired autographed copies of five issues of Annalen der Physik, which published Einstein’s original findings in quantum theory and special relativity. It is thought that either Einstein, or other mathematicians, gave these to Bullitt in appreciation for his support helping Jewish mathematicians escape Nazi occupied Europe.
A native Louisvillian, Bullitt kept his collection in his downtown Louisville law office. He left no instructions for the distribution of the collection upon his death, and many prestigious universities – Bullitt’s alma mater Princeton not least among them – vied to become its home. Ultimately, his wife gave the entirety of the rare book collection to the University of Louisville.
“Mrs. Bullitt kept these in the community for a reason,” Buie said. “We like to think she wanted to enhance the prestige of the University and inspire intellectual inquiry in her adopted community.”
The collection continues to grow with help from Lowry Watkins, Jr., Bullitt’s grandson. Watkins’ gift made possible an endowment to purchase additional books, like Galileo’s Siderius Nuncius, that continue to advance the collection.
To learn more about the Bullitt Collection or explore other rare books, visit the Ekstrom Library Archives & Special Collections.