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only responded promptly but proposed to make the major holdings of the Burndy Library, which he had assembled and established, a gift to the nation to come to the Smithsonian Institution, retaining as the holdings of the Burndy Library in Norwalk only those materials which are duplicates in its own or the Smithsonian's collections.

The proposed gift and its terms are described in a letter from Dr. Dibner to Mr. Ripley dated May 10, 1974.

[[underlined]] Content [[/underlined]]

The proposed gift from Dr. Bern Dibner to the Smithsonian Institution is the largest single library in the United States, and possibly elsewhere, of works on the history of science and technology. It will consist of approximately 50,000 bound volumes in all languages although predominantly English, 500 incunabula (books published between 1455-1500, the first 45 years of printing), 800 portraits in the form of engravings and other graphic representations and well as several painted portraits, a selection of manuscripts and original laboratory notes as well as a collection of scientific instruments.

[[underlined]] Historical Association Items [[/underlined]]

Items of important historical association range in nature from 

--an autograph letter from Galileo Galilei to Nicolas Claude de Peiresc dated May 12, 1635 describing the invention of a magnetic water clock;