The Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th century manuscript, is the unique source for two of Archimedes treatises, "The Method" and "Stomachion", and it is the unique source for the Greek text of "On Floating Bodies". All these texts were erased in the thirteenth century, and written over. In private hands throughout much of the 20th century, the manuscript was sold at auction to a private collector in 1998, and subsequently deposited at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland by the owner a few months later. Since that date the manuscript has been the subject of conservation, imaging, and scholarship. Entirely new texts from the ancient world have been discovered, and transcribed, using many different imaging techniques, including X ray flourescence imaging at SLAC. This lecture will describe the history of the Palimpsest, its imaging, and the recent discoveries.

Argonne Physics Division Colloquium Schedule