Long-lost page of Archimedes’ writings rediscovered in France
The discovery links the Archimedes Palimpsest, an important medieval manuscript containing texts by the Greek mathematician Archimedes.
An engraving of the death of Archimedes.
The Archimedes Palimpsest is one of the treasures of antiquity. This medieval manuscript from the 10th century contains copies of the writings of Archimedes of Syracuse, the Greek mathematician and scientist who laid the foundations of modern calculus, geometry, and fundamental physics. And now scientists have recovered one of the lost pages of the palimpsest, which sheds more light on the mathematical thinking of the great scientist.
This page has been missing for years: We know that a historian photographed much of the manuscript in 1906 – but some time later, some pages mysteriously disappeared.
Researchers discovered the missing sheet, page 123, in the Museum of Fine Arts in Blois, France. according to French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). One side of the page includes a text from Archimedes’ treatise on sphere and cylinderAccording to the CNRS, most of which is legible.
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© Blois, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 73.7.52. Photography IRHT-CNRS
The text on the other side of the page is less certain: whatever was written there is covered over by a gilded depiction of the Biblical prophet Daniel. The researchers hope to use X-rays and other advanced imaging methods to uncover the text beneath the drawing.
© Blois, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 73.7.52. Photography IRHT-CNRS
Archimedes lived in Syracuse, Ancient Greece around 250 BC and was one of the world’s greatest thinkers, responsible for theories, experiments and inventions about mathematics, physics and engineering that are still of interest to scientists today. (Legend has it that Archimedes died doing mathematics – at the hands of a Roman soldier while making calculations in the sand – although this has never been confirmed.)
Remains of the Archimedes Palimpsest Housed in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, although it is unclear whether the missing page will be added to the collection.
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