The Archimedes Palimpsest

Volume1, Catalogue and Commentary
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-1-107-01457-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 350 Seiten, Format (B × H): 253 mm x 347 mm, Gewicht: 2530 g

Reihe: The Archimedes Palimpsest Publications

The Archimedes Palimpsest is the name given to a Byzantine prayer book that was written over a number of earlier manuscripts, including one that contained two unique works by Archimedes, unquestionably the greatest mathematician of antiquity. Sold at auction in 1998, it has since been the subject of a privately funded project to conserve, image, and transcribe its texts. In this volume the scientists, conservators, classicists, and historians involved in the project discuss in full their techniques and their discoveries. These include new speeches by the classical Athenian orator Hyperides, a lost commentary on Aristotle's Categories from the second or third century AD, and substantial re-readings and reinterpretations of the works by Archimedes. The book discusses the pioneering imaging and post-processing techniques used to reveal the texts, and includes detailed codicological descriptions of all eight manuscripts that constitute the Palimpsest. It will be of interest to manuscript scholars, conservators, classicists, and historians of science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Netz, Reviel

Noel, William

Wilson, Nigel

Tchernetska, Natalie

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Geschichte der Mathematik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: the Archimedes Palimpsest project William Noel; Part I. The Manuscripts: Part II. History: 1. The making of the Euchologion Abigail Quandt; 2. The strange and eventful history of the Archimedes Palimpsest John Lowden; 3. Itinera Archimedea: on Heiberg in Constantinople and Archimedes in Copenhagen Erik Petersen; Part III. Conservation: 4. Conserving the Archimedes Palimpsest Abigail Quandt; Part IV. The Digital Palimpsest: 5. Imaging and image-processing techniques William A. Christens-Barry, Roger L. Easton, Jr and Keith T. Knox; 6. Imaging with x-ray fluorescence Uwe Bergmann; 7. The Palimpsest data set Doug Emery, Alex Lee and Michael Toth; Part V. The Texts: 8. The Palimpsest in context Natalie Tchernetska and Nigel Wilson; 9. The place of Codex C in Archimedes scholarship Reviel Netz; Appendix: concordance of foliations.

Über Autor(innen)

Noel, William
William Noel is Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore and Director of the Archimedes Palimpsest Project. His popular book, The Archimedes Codex (co-authored with Reviel Netz, Neumann Prize), was published in 2007 and has been translated into twenty languages. He is a member of the Faculty of Rare Book School at the University of Virginia and is Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Dr Noel received his doctorate from Cambridge University in 1993 and has published widely on European manuscript illumination in the period 800 to 1300 and on the Archimedes Palimpsest.

Wilson, Nigel
Nigel Wilson is a Fellow of the British Academy and Fellow and Tutor (Emeritus) at Lincoln College, Oxford. He has had long experience of research on Greek manuscripts and editing texts. His works include Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (with L. D. Reynolds, 3rd edition 1991) and Scholars of Byzantium (revised edition 1996).

Tchernetska, Natalie
Natalie Tchernetska is a leading manuscript scholar specialising in Greek palimpsests. Educated in Riga, St Petersburg and Geneva, she conducted research in Rome and Hamburg and completed her doctorate at Cambridge University. In the late 1990s she was one of the first manuscript scholars in the world to venture into the field of digital imaging. In 2002 she discovered and identified the fragments of two speeches of Hyperides in the Archimedes Palimpsest; this discovery radically changed our view of the survival of Hyperides in Byzantium.

Netz, Reviel
Reviel Netz is Professor of Classics and Professor of Philosophy, by courtesy, at Stanford University. His books, most published by Cambridge University Press, include The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History (1999, Runciman Award), The Transformation of Early Mediterranean Mathematics: From Problems to Equations (2004) and Ludic Proof: Greek Mathematics and the Alexandrian Aesthetic (2009). He is also engaged in a translation of and commentary on the complete works of Archimedes, the first volume of which, The Two Books on Sphere and Cylinder, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2004. His popular book on the Archimedes Palimpsest Project, The Archimedes Codex (co-authored with William Noel, Neumann Prize), was published in 2007 and has been translated into twenty languages.

Reviel Netz is Professor of Classics and Professor of Philosophy, by courtesy, at Stanford University. His books, most published by Cambridge University Press, include The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History (1999, Runciman Award), The Transformation of Early Mediterranean Mathematics: From Problems to Equations (2004) and Ludic Proof: Greek Mathematics and the Alexandrian Aesthetic (2009). He is also engaged in a translation of and commentary on the complete works of Archimedes, the first volume of which, The Two Books on Sphere and Cylinder, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2004. His popular book on the Archimedes Palimpsest Project, The Archimedes Codex (co-authored with William Noel, Neumann Prize), was published in 2007 and has been translated into twenty languages.
William Noel is Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore and Director of the Archimedes Palimpsest Project. His popular book, The Archimedes Codex (co-authored with Reviel Netz, Neumann Prize), was published in 2007 and has been translated into twenty languages. He is a member of the Faculty of Rare Book School at the University of Virginia and is Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Dr Noel received his doctorate from Cambridge University in 1993 and has published widely on European manuscript illumination in the period 800 to 1300 and on the Archimedes Palimpsest.
Nigel Wilson is a Fellow of the British Academy and Fellow and Tutor (Emeritus) at Lincoln College, Oxford. He has had long experience of research on Greek manuscripts and editing texts. His works include Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (with L. D. Reynolds, 3rd edition 1991) and Scholars of Byzantium (revised edition 1996).
Natalie Tchernetska is a leading manuscript scholar specialising in Greek palimpsests. Educated in Riga, St Petersburg and Geneva, she conducted research in Rome and Hamburg and completed her PhD at Cambridge University. In the late 1990s, she was one of the first manuscript scholars worldwide to venture into the field of digital imaging. In 2002, it was she who discovered and identified fragments of two speeches of Hyperides from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the discovery that radically changed our view on survival of Hyperides in Byzantium.