by moderator I Fatsea
Our forum received a copy of “The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity's Greatest Scientist”
by Reviel Netz and William Noel 2007.
We decided to have a background briefing of this incredible story in March 2010 and we’re happy to share the summary below.
A stolen medieval Greek prayer book [1] containing seven treatises of the Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse (3rd century BC) was auctioned at Christie's in New York in 1998 for US$2.2 mil.[2a] News of the sale became front page news in the broadsheet press because of its price. It was the highest priced text ever auctioned.
But the real news was that it was the most important text manuscript ever sold through auction. [2b] It was the earliest known copy of Archimedes’ work to exist. [2c] No original work of Archimedes from the 3rd century B.C. has ever been known to survive to the present day.
Archimedes is extremely important because he is one of the very few foundational figures in the history of western philosophy and science. [3a]
Even though we know more about Archimedes than any other ancient mathematician, on a whole it can be said – our age knows virtually nothing of ancient mathematics. [3b] Of all the ancient literary works that survive – these roughly constitute 1% of the estimated total written works of the ancient world. Had just the entire work of Archimedes been known a few centuries earlier (say 1500's instead of teh 1700's) a number of scientists posit – that western science would have progressed much further than where it is today.[4]
The manuscript’s new owner, an anonymous american based high tech billionaire won the bidding over the Hellenic government, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. [5]
The first few minutes of the video below shows the bidding of the then Greek Counsel General Manessis (paddle—number 176) and the London based book dealer Mr. Finch (number 169) representing the american billionaire..
The Hellenic government participated in the auction to rightfully reclaim the
stolen property.
What prompted the wealthy billionaire to bid against the Hellenic government
and ignore the claims of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem [6]
was probably based on the understanding that the Archimedes palimpsest was part of the inheritance of world science, and he wanted to leave his mark on it.
But a surprise comes afterwards in that the billionaire’s intention was to engage with ancient scholars and scientists and to provide them the financial resources to save the condition of the manuscript, and to translate its 174 pages. [7]
This effort became known as the Archimedes Palimpsest project.
With the result of more than 10 years effort, you can now access the entirety of the manuscript with this link.
the Archimedes Palimpsest Project
- a marriage of high technology and ancient scholarship
The project operates out of the prestigious Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland [considered the greatest art museum in the USA] under the helm of William Noel [project director]. Their website provides an up to date summary of their activities [8] and can be accessed here.
The project started experimenting with a number of different imaging technologies, [9] and evolved to become the most advanced document
imaging project in the world.
Reviel Netz and William Noel’s book outline the extraordinary interest and incredible resources the project attracted. [10] For example, their resourcefullness attracted Michael Toth as an image specialist - who is the National Policy Director of the US National Reconnaissance Office [the nerve center of the US reconnaissance satellite program] who became the project’s techical consultant. [p.18] Alongside Toth stood many academics & scientists from both the public and private domains.
[1] The prayer book is a manuscript (manually scripted on a parchment in the year 1229) but written over the work of Archimedes (scripted in the 10th century AD.) i.e. one was written on top of the other.
A parchment is created by scraping the skin off animals. It is the same material used in the manufacture of shoes.
Palimpsests are created from an already used parchment. In this case, there was an attempt to scrape off the scripted work of Archimedes.(i.e. the parchment had been scraped more than once) to create clear folios (pages) for the religious text.
[2a] The reserve price for the palimpsest was at $800,000 The final price US$2.2 mil included Christie’s 10% commission.
[2b] Noel admits “Public institutions were offered the book at a lower price than it actually fetched at auction, and they turned it down” p.19. obviously this did not include Hellenic public institutions.
[2c] At the time of the auction, nobody had a complete understanding of what was written on the folios (pages.)
[3a] “Philosophy … cannot be understood unless you have first learned to understand the language and recognize the characters in which it is written.
It is written in the language of mathematics, and the characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures. Without such means it is impossible for us to understand a word of it …” wrote Galileo when recovering the spirit of the science of Archimedes. p. 292
[3b] The Archimedean texts, make the mathematics of Leonardo da Vinci "look like child's play." p.2
[3c] There are three known manuscripts that contain a number of Archimedes’ treatises. Of these 2 are said to be lost. The only remaining one is the newly purchased manuscript - now deposited by the anonymous billionaire in the Walters Museum in Maryland, USA. This manuscript also includes a previously unknown treatise by Archimedes.
[4] refer Dr. Chris Rorres University of Pennsylvania
[5] When the Archimedes palimpsest was sold, some scholars were outraged that the book had returned to a private collection. Because these days, private owners don’t have the reputation of being the best custodians of world treasures.
[6] The manuscript was stolen during the 1920’s from a Greek Orthodox library - St. Sabas Monastery (located in the Judean Desert - near Jerusalem) and was subsequently kept in a private library in Paris for the next 70 years, until its auction in 1998. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem challenged the legitimacy of auctioning its stolen property, but its case was dismissed in the courts. (the witnesses had died decades past)
[7] roughly 60 folios (pages) are missing; one of the missing folios has since been located in Cambridge University library.
[8] the translation continually requires revisions.
[9] after much experimenting, the method employed used multi-spectural imaging. Bombarding each folio (page) with X-rays; and recovering the wavelengths from each of the different ink formulas used.
[10] the project has never suffered from a lack of private funds.
“Western science is nothing
but a series of footnotes to Archimedes”
William Noel
- Archimedes Palimpsest Project Director
and curator at the Walters Museum in Maryland
The Walters Art Museum
in Baltimore, Maryland
is considered
the greatest
art museum
in the USA
housing 55 centuries of art
