Pearl Kibre

Pearl Kibre (September 2, 1900 – July 15, 1985) was an American historian particularly known for her work on medieval science and medieval universities. She taught at Hunter College 1937–1971 and helped found the doctoral program in history of the City University of New York. She won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1950 for her work and the Haskins Medal in 1964 for her book Scholarly Privileges in the Middle Ages.

Early life and education Pearl Kibre was born on September 2, 1900 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Kenneth Kibre, a Jewish optometrist born in Odessa, and Jane du Pione Kibre. She moved to California as a girl with her parents; she attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. Kibre attended the University of California at Berkeley as an undergraduate (1924) and master's (1925) student, and completed doctoral studies at Columbia University in 1936, with Lynn Thorndike as her advisor. She taught at Pasadena Junior College for a few years before resuming graduate work. (Her sister Adele Kibre also earned a Ph.D., in Latin Language and Literature, from the University of Chicago.)

Career Pearl Kibre "helped lay the foundations for the contemporary study of medieval science and medieval universities." Her students included historian of Renaissance medicine Nancy Siraisi. She became a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science in 1960. Kibre was a member of the International Committee of Historical Sciences, the United States Subcommission for the History of Universities, and the editorial board of Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries. She was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1964, the same year she won the Haskins Medal from the Academy for her 1962 book Scholarly Privileges in the Middle Ages.

Books by Pearl Kibre included The Library of Pico della Mirandola (1936), A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (1937, revised 1963, with Lynn Thorndike), The Nations in the Mediaeval Universities (1948), Scholarly Privileges in the Middle Ages (1962), Hippocrates Latinus: Repertorium of Hippocratic Writings in the Latin Middle Ages (1972–1985), In addition, an edited volume of essays was collected in her honor, Science, Medicine, and the University, 1200-1500 (1976); and she contributed to the Didascaliae, a volume of research using materials from the Vatican Library, presented to the Vatican in 1961.

Death and legacy Pearl Kibre died on July 15, 1985, aged 84 years, at her home in New York City.

The Pearl Kibre Medieval Study is a study space maintained by an interdisciplinary graduate student organization at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, begun in 1972 and named in her honor.