20th-century technology reveals the writings ofa10th-century geniusTherese Umerlik News-Post Staff | Posted: Monday, August 9, 1999 12:00 am

A small, unassuming book with its tattered, yellowed pages bound by a thick, rust-colored coverrested on a display table at a Christie's auction this past year. A private collector who chooses toremain anonymous secured this text for $2 million and freed it from its obscurity.

The manuscript hidden under religious writings for hundreds of years is the "ArchimedesPalimpsest," the oldest surviving work of the deliberations of the famous scientist andmathematician of the third century B.C. The content comprises Archimedes' "Method ofMechanical Theorems" where Archimedes pioneers the study of calculus and the only Greekversion of "On Floating Bodies" where treatises on flotation and specific gravity were constructed.

Palimpsest is a term derived from the Greek palimpsestos, which means "scraped over." The textof Archimedes' works was literally scraped over, and religious prayers were written over it in the12th century.

Preserving the palimpsest

The collector placed this document in the hands of The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore becauseof its skill in manuscript preservation. Over the centuries, the text has suffered deterioration frommold and fire and requires special attention before Archimedes' contributions are lost.

Abigail Quandt, senior conservator of manuscripts and rare books, is in charge of this painstakingendeavor that, she anticipates, could take years to complete. The text must be stabilized, and theinformation organized to reveal the magnitude of Archimedes' work.

To assist in the conservation process, modern technology has proven essential. Digitalphotography has already revealed portions of the text and geometrical diagrams eclipsed by thereligious prayers. The entire text is expected to be photographed within two years and ready fortranslation for the first time.

Archimedes' life and work unveiled

To emphasize the profound intellectual weight of such a discovery, The Walters provides anextensive, informative exhibit with the palimpsest on display as the centerpiece.

A 20-minute video runs throughout the day, pausing every two minutes. The video chronicles thehistory of palimpsest up to its deposit at The Walters.

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In addition, wall texts and panels and a Web page allow patrons to recount the life of Archimedesand the story behind the manuscript, its creation and discovery.

A leaf of the text can be seen under an ultraviolet light at an interactive display. The curious canpush a button that turns on the light which enhances the contrast between the text and theparchment, and allows the viewer to see portions of the Archimedes text underneath.

A tortured history

Speculation and mystery surround the trail of the palimpsest. Archimedes originally wrote hisdeliberations on papyrus rolls; succeeding generations transcribed his texts to preserve them.Eventually, the text was copied onto parchment in the 10th century in Constantinople, nowIstanbul in Turkey.

The fourth crusade thundered through Constantinople in the 12th century and sacked the city. Afirst scribe believed to have been from Constantinople scraped off the text and disassembled thebook; a second scribe transcribed Medieval Christian religious prayers over it. At the time, theneed to preserve religious rites far outweighed the preservation of Archimedes' texts.

For hundreds of years, the book was housed in a monastery in the Holy Land between Jerusalemand the Dead Sea. It moved to the library of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem andthen to the religious community in Constantinople.

Constantine von Tischendorf discovered the text there in 1846. Von Tischendorf understood thathe had found a palimpsest but by whom he did not know. He removed one page and had it sent toCambridge, England.

Dr. Johan Ludvig Heiberg, a Danish philologist, rediscovered the text in 1907 in Constantinopleand transcribed it with the use of a magnifying glass.

In 1909, the palimpsest underwent its last scholarly inspection and then fell into the hands of aFrench family in the early 1920s. The whereabouts of the palimpsest for the remainder of thecentury are generally unknown.

Eventually, however, it resurfaced at Christie's and then passed to the care of The Walters. Uponinvestigation, the leaf in Cambridge was discovered to be one of the pages of the palimpsest.

From a book to a palimpsest

The process of perserving Archimedes' text eventually resulted in its transcription on parchment.A single piece of parchment is the skin of one young goat or sheep, treated and stretched to yieldtwo 15 foot by 12 foot pages. To create the 10th century book, 43 and a half goat skins wererequired to create 87 sheets. The text was written in two columns on the parchment using a reed

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with one end fashioned into a point to function as a pen and dipped into ink from crushed oakgourds.

The sheets were folded in half and then nested within each other to create what is known as aquire. The quires were sewn together with linen thread and bound by two boards covered withgoat skin. The book stood over a foot in height.

When the book was converted, the pages were unbound and cut in half. The pages were thenturned 90 degrees and folded in half. The prayers were written in one column with ornamentationin the margins and stood at a height of 8 inches. This process transformed the book into apalimpsest with the Archimedes text only slightly visible.

Under the care of The Walters, Archimedes' text is expected to surface and offer today's scholarsan insight into the nuances of the deliberations of this famous thinker.

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