November 2025 — Peking University Library has successfully completed the acceptance of a book donation from the internationally renowned medieval historian, Professor Patrick J. Geary. This donation was facilitated with the strong support of the Department of History.
A leading scholar in medieval studies and former president of the American Medieval Academy, Professor Geary has held teaching positions at Princeton University, the University of Florida, and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2012, he joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Professor Geary is a prolific author whose influential works include Before France and Germany, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages, Phantoms of Remembrance, The Myth of Nations, The Historian as Public Intellectual, and Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages. His research is widely respected in Western academia for its breadth, intellectual depth, and distinctive style, with several of his works regarded as indispensable "standard texts" in the field.
Professor Geary’s academic connection with Peking University dates back years. In 2016, he visited the university and delivered lectures under the "Peking University Global Fellowship" program for distinguished scholars. Furthermore, the Chinese translation of his seminal work History, Memory, and Writing, led by Professor Luo Xin of PKU’s Department of History, was published in 2018, further deepening the scholarly exchange and intellectual dialogue between the two parties.
The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton serves as a premier global destination for distinguished scholars. Among its current and former faculty and members are 36 Nobel laureates, 46 of the 64 Fields Medal recipients, 24 of the 28 Abel Prize winners, as well as a considerable number of MacArthur Fellows and Wolf Prize laureates. This donation not only helps to build a lasting partnership with the Institute for Advanced Study but also lays a significant foundation for the ongoing acquisition of book collections from leading scholars in relevant fields across the United States.
The donated materials, totaling approximately 4,000 volumes, focus primarily on Classical and Medieval studies and include monographs, academic journals, and reference works. The collection features resources in several languages, such as English, French, German, Italian, and Latin.
Upon the incorporation of the donated collection into the library's holdings, systematic processing and cataloging will be promptly undertaken. Additionally, specialized promotional activities will be organized for faculty and students at an opportune time. These efforts aim to further enrich the library's collections and support the development of related disciplines as well as academic research.
Once processed, all relevant materials—including those from this donation—will be accessible through the library's search platform. Faculty and students may search by "帕特里克·格里" or "Patrick J. Geary" to locate and consult these works.
