The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book Is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity's Greatest Scientist

326 Pages·2007·2.97 MB·English

by  Reviel Netz

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THE
A RC H I M E D E S
C O D E X
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THE
A RC H I M E D E S
C O D E X
How a Medieval Prayer Book
Is Revealing the True Genius
of Antiquity’s Greatest Scientist
REVIEL NETZ
WILLIAM NOEL
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Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish
their products are claimed as trademarks.Where those designations appear
in this book and Da Capo Press was aware of a trademark claim,the
designations have been printed in initial capital letters.
Copyright © 2007 by Reviel Netz and William Noel
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored
in a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior written
permission of the publisher.Printed in the United States of America.
Production Services by Chris Grison for Outbox Creative Partners
Set in 11.5 point Bembo by Outbox Creative Partners
Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
First Da Capo Press edition 2007
First published in Great Britain in 2007 by Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
ISBN-10 0–306–81580–X
ISBN-13 978–0–306–81580–5
Published by Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
www.dacapopress.com
Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United
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please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group,2300
Chestnut Street,Suite 200,Philadelphia,PA 19103,or call [phone],or e-mail
[email protected].
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9—10 09 08 07
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Contents
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List of Illustrations vii
Preface 1
1 Archimedes in America 3
2 Archimedes in Syracuse 27
3 The Great Race,Part 1:Before the Palimpsest 65
4 Visual Science 87
5 The Great Race,Part II:The History of the Palimpsest 117
6 Archimedes’Method,1999,or The Making of Science 139
7 The Critical Path 159
8 Archimedes’Method,2001,or Infinity Unveiled 183
9 The Digital Palimpsest 205
10 The Stomachion,2003,or Archimedes at Play 233
11 New Light on an Old Subject 261
Epilogue:“The Vast Book of the Universe” 281
Acknowledgements 295
Further Reading 299
Index 305
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List of Illustrations
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1a The Archimedes Palimpsest.(John Dean)
1b The Archimedes Palimpsest open.(John Dean)
2a The Euryalus fortress,Syracuse,Sicily.(John Dean)
2b Hagia Sophia,Constantinople (Istanbul).(John Dean)
3 A medieval scribe.(Walters Art Museum)
4a Constantinople (Istanbul).(John Dean)
4b The Monastery of St.Sabas,Palestine.(John Dean)
4c Leaf of the Palimpsest,Cambridge University Library.
(Cambridge University Library)
5a Abigail Quandt,Senior Conservator of Manuscripts and Rare
Books at the Walters Art Museum.(The Archimedes
Palimpsest Project)
5b Conserving the Palimpsest.(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
5c Disbinding the Palimpsest.(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
6a Heiberg’s photograph of folio 57r of the Archimedes
Palimpsest,Rochester Institute of Technology,Johns Hopkins
University.(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
6b An illustration in H.Omont’s 1929 publication of Greek
manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale.(The Archimedes
Palimpsest Project)
6c Folio 57r of the Archimedes Palimpsest as it is now.RIT and
JHU.(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
6d An X-ray Fluorescence image of folio 57r.SLAC.(Copyright:
Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
7a A detail of the Archimedes Palimpsest before it was disbound.
(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
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THE ARCHIMEDES CODEX
7b The Palimpsest in normal light.It is very difficult to discern
any undertext.RIT and JHU (Copyright:Owner of the
Archimedes Palimpsest)
7c An early experiment,this is a highly processed image of the
same area.RIT and JHU (Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes
Palimpsest)
8a Setting up a leaf of the Palimpsest to be imaged.(The
Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
8b Roger Easton,Professor of Imaging Science at the Rochester
Institute of Technology.(John Dean)
8c Bill Christens-Barry of Equipoise Imaging LLC.(John Dean)
8d Keith Knox,Chief Scientist at the Boeing Corporation,Maui.
(John Dean)
9 Diagram to Archimedes’Spiral Lines proposition 21,in ultra-
violet light.RIT and JHU.(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes
Palimpsest)
10a A detail of the Palimpsest in normal light.RIT and JHU.
(copyright:Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
10b The same page in pseudocolor.RIT and JHU.(Copyright:
Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
11a Reviel Netz has annotated this ultraviolet image in green.
(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
11b Nigel Wilson.(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
12a Will Noel and Reviel Netz study a leaf of the Archimedes
Palimpsest.(John Dean)
12b A pseudocolor image of the Hyperides text in the Palimpsest.
RIT and JHU.(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
12c A detail of the third unique text in the manuscript in natural
light.RIT and JHU.(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes
Palimpsest)
12d A pseudocolor image of the same detail as 12c,with the word
“Aristotle”circled.RIT and JHU.(Copyright:Owner of the
Archimedes Palimpsest)
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
13a Bob Morton,Abigail Quandt,and Gene Hall.(The Archimedes
Palimpsest Project)
13b EDAX scan.(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
13c Outside Beamline 6-2 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center.(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
14a A leaf of the Archimedes Palimpsest in the beam at SLAC.
(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
14b Uwe Bergmann,Reviel Netz and Will Noel.(The Archimedes
Palimpsest Project)
15a Abigail Quandt inserts a forgery into the beam at SLAC.(The
Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
15b A regular image of one half of a forged page.RIT and JHU.
(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
15c An “iron map”of the same page,taken at SLAC.SLAC.
(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
16a Uwe Bergmann,Abigail Quandt,Keith Knox,Reviel Netz
and Roger Easton at SLAC.(The Archimedes Palimpsest Project)
16b A detail of folio 1v of the Palimpsest,taken in normal light.
RIT and JHU.(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes Palimpsest)
16c An “iron map”revealing the colophon of the scribe of the
prayer book.SLAC.(Copyright:Owner of the Archimedes
Palimpsest)
Endpapers:frontThe Archimedes Palimpsest,folios 16v–17r in
natural light;backThe Archimedes Palimpsest,folios 16v–17r
processed to reveal the text of Archimedes’On Floating Bodies.
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