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Archimedes: Archimedes Palimpsest
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Although many Archimedes discoveries have been made, there were numerous passages in the palimpsest that remained beyond imaging techniques traditionally used to read ancient documents. In particular, it was impossible to decipher text on the pages that had been painted over with gold leaf (these paintings are believed to be forgeries, an apparent attempt by the private collector in the twentieth century to enhance the document’s value). Enter Uwe Bergmann, a physicist at Stanford’s Synchrotron Radiation Lab. Under normal circumstances, Dr. Bergmann studies the ways in which spinach leaves take up water during photosynthesis. After reading an article about the Archimedes palimpsest, he realized that the same intense X-rays that allow him to peer into the molecular goings-on in spinach leaves could image iron-based ink under gold leaf. This work at SSRL continues to reveal new discoveries about Archimedes and the history of this amazing and unique document.
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Unlike his inventions, the mathematical writings of Archimedes were little known in antiquity. Mathematicians from Alexandria read and quoted him, but the first comprehensive compilation was made only by Isidore of Miletus (c. 530 AD), while commentaries on the works of Archimedes written by Eutocius in the sixth century AD opened them to wider readership for the first time. The relatively few copies of Archimedes' written work that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance,[4] while the discovery in 1906 of previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results.[5]
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Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracuse, when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed. At his request his tombstone was carved with a sphere contained within a cylinder and inscribed with the ratio of the cylinder's volume to that of the sphere. Archimedes considered the discovery of this ratio the greatest of all his accomplishments. The relatively few copies of his treatises that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance. The historians of Ancient Rome showed a strong interest in Archimedes and wrote accounts of his life and works, while the discovery of previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results.
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Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracuse, when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed. At his request, his tomb carried a carving of his favorite mathematical proof. Modern experiments have tested claims that he built a "death ray" capable of setting ships on fire at a distance, and that he constructed a device that could sink ships by lifting them out of the water. [3] The discovery of previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results. [4]
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The Archimedes Palimpsest was sold on October 29, 1998 at Christie's to "an unidentified American Collector" for $2,000,000. A spokesman for Christie's said the new owner will make the manuscript available for study by scholars.
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The book is most timely, appearing, as it does, so soon after the October 1998 auction for $2 million of the Archimedes Palimpsest, and in fact, while the Palimpsest was on exhibition at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. By the end of 155 pages, the reader is convinced that Archimedes deserves his position on Gauss' pedastal. More books like Stein's book on Archimdes would be welcome.
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Archimedes Palimpsest