The Archimedes Palimpsest by Archimedes of Syracuse and other authors
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 and other authors. 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. 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. The erasure was incomplete, and Archimedes' work is now
readable using digital processing of ultraviolet, X-ray, and visible light.
In 1906 it was briefly inspected in Constantinople and was published, from
photographs, by the Danish philologist Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1854–1928); shortly
thereafter Archimedes' Greek text was translated into English by Thomas Heath.
Before that it was not widely known among mathematicians, physicists, or
historians. It contains:
"Equilibrium of Planes"
"Spiral Lines"
"The Measurement of the
Circle"
"Sphere and Cylinder"
"On Floating Bodies"
(only known copy in Greek)
"The Method of
Mechanical Theorems" (only known copy)
"Stomachion" (only known
copy)
The palimpsest also contains speeches by the 4th century BC
politician Hypereides, and a commentary on Aristotle's Categories by Alexander
of Aphrodisias.
Source: Wikipedia.
Video: The Archimedes Palimpsest by Will Noel, Roger L.
Easton, Jr., and Michael B. Toth
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 and other authors. 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. 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. The erasure was incomplete, and Archimedes' work is now
readable using digital processing of ultraviolet, X-ray, and visible light.