Long-lost page of Archimedes’ writings rediscovered in France
SMRTR summary
Page 123 of one of antiquity's most precious manuscripts has been hiding in plain sight at a French museum for years. The missing leaf belongs to the Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th-century medieval text containing the mathematical writings of Archimedes of Syracuse, the ancient Greek genius who helped lay the groundwork for modern calculus and physics around 250 B.C.E.
Researchers at the French National Center for Scientific Research discovered the long-lost page at the Museum of Fine Arts in Blois, France. The page had vanished mysteriously sometime after 1906, when a historian photographed the complete manuscript.
One side of the recovered page contains legible text from Archimedes' treatise "On the Sphere and the Cylinder." The other side presents a tantalizing puzzle: whatever Archimedes wrote there lies hidden beneath a gilded Biblical illustration of the prophet Daniel.
Scientists plan to use advanced x-ray imaging to peer through the artwork and reveal the concealed mathematical insights. The rest of the palimpsest currently resides at Baltimore's Walters Art Museum, though it remains unclear whether this rediscovered treasure will join the collection.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Scientific American.
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