diff --git a/numpydoc/__init__.py b/numpydoc/__init__.py
index 508591d8..42836ff6 100644
--- a/numpydoc/__init__.py
+++ b/numpydoc/__init__.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 This package provides the numpydoc Sphinx extension for handling docstrings
 formatted according to the NumPy documentation format.
 """
-__version__ = '1.2.2.dev0'
+from ._version import __version__
 
 
 def _verify_sphinx_jinja():
diff --git a/numpydoc/_version.py b/numpydoc/_version.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cafbb04c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/numpydoc/_version.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+__version__ = '1.2.2.dev0'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4b946e0a..96245316 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,7 +3,15 @@
 
 from setuptools import setup
 
-from numpydoc import __version__ as version
+# Adapted from MNE-Python (BSD)
+version = None
+with open(os.path.join('numpydoc', '_version.py')) as fid:
+    for line in (line.strip() for line in fid):
+        if line.startswith('__version__'):
+            version = line.split('=')[1].strip().strip('\'')
+            break
+if version is None:
+    raise RuntimeError('Could not determine version')
 
 if sys.version_info < (3, 7):
     raise RuntimeError("Python version >= 3.7 required.")