Hunt for Archimedes' lost words - Scientists decipher Archimedes' work using modern technology

Using modern technology to uncover ancient secrets, scientists have deciphered five pages of the only known copy of a 2’300-year-old Greek text by the mathematician Archimedes.

The manuscript is the only copy in the original Greek of Archimedes' „On Floating Bodies”. An anonymous buyer purchased the so-called Archimedes Palimpsest at an auction for $2 million and entrusted it to the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.

The Conservation is being undertaken by Abigail Quandt, Senior Conservator of Manuscripts and Rare Books. Two teams of scientists, from the Johns Hopkins University and the Rochester Institute of Technology, are using multispectral imaging, confocal microscopy and processing techniques as well as ultraviolet and infrared filters developed for medicine and space research to reveal the hidden text.

The Conservation of the Archimedes Palimpsest

Abigail Quandt, the Walters's senior conservator of manuscripts and rare books, currently has custody of the palimpsest. Its pages are blotched with pale purple mold stains, and in places they are riddled with fine holes.

"The book was stored in very damp conditions," says Ms. Quandt, who is documenting the condition of the book prior to disassembling it for imaging. "Mold caused great damage to the parchment and ink."

Preserving the Archimedes manuscript could take years: the manuscript has to be completely disassembled, leaf by leaf. Then each leaf has to be stabilized, before the whole book is reassembled.

thewalters.org/news_art_museum/pressdetail.aspx
www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2000/oct3000/30hidden.html