Archimedes Palimpsest

The Archimedes Palimpsest is a palimpsest on parchment in the form of a codex which originally was a copy of an otherwise unknown work of the ancient mathematician, physicist, and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse. Archimedes lived in the third century BC, but the copy was made in the 10th century by an anonymous scribe. In the 12th century the codex was unbound and washed, in order that the parchment leaves could be folded in half and reused for a Christian liturgical text. Fortunately, the erasure was incomplete, and Archimedes' work is still in large part legible today, using combinations of ultraviolet and visible light. It was a book of nearly 90 pages before being made a palimpsest of 177 pages; the older leaves folded so that each became two leaves of the liturgical book.

Related Topics:
Palimpsest - Parchment - Codex - Mathematician - Physicist - Engineer - Archimedes - Syracuse - Third century BC - 10th century - 12th century - Liturgical

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In 1906 it was briefly inspected in Constantinople and was published, from photographs, by the Danish philologist Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1854-1928); shortly thereafter it was translated into English by Thomas Heath. Before that it was not widely known among mathematicians, physicists, or historians.

Related Topics:
1906 - Constantinople - Danish - Philologist - 1854 - 1928 - English - Thomas Heath

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Many statements on the web on the topic of the Archimedes Palimpsest are full of hyperbole. They can leave the erroneous impression that none of Archimedes' works are known except this one, or that only since the late 1990s, when modern techniques began to be used to fill in some lacunae, did anyone know the content of this palimpsest.

Related Topics:
Hyperbole - 1990s - Lacuna

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