Palimpsest Bibliography

Books, articles, papers, reports, standards, and talks by the Archimedes Palimpsest project scholars and scientists. Press coverage is on the news page.

• Archimedes Palimpsest Metadata Standard 1.0. Rev. 5. June 7, 2006.

• Archimedes Palimpsest Metadata Standard 1.0X. Rev. 3. March 20, 2006.

• Archimedes Palimpsest Metadata Standard XRF Extensions. Draft.

• Archimedes Palimpsest Transcription Annotations Metadata Standard. Draft, May 22, 2006.

• Archimedes Palimpsest Transcription Metadata Standard. Draft, October 22, 2007.

• Bergmann, Uwe. “The Archimedes Palimpsest under X-Ray Vision.” Dinner talk, 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society, California Section, Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Carson, California, October 17, 2008, 7 p.m.

• Bergmann, Uwe, and Keith Knox. “Pseudo-Color Enhanced X-Ray Fluorescence Imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” Invited talk, Document Recognition and Retrieval Conference, San Jose, California, January 21/22, 2009.

• Bergmann, Uwe. “Secrets in the Ancient Goatskin - Archimedes Oldest Writings Revealed by X-Rays.” Lunch talk, Society of California Archivists 2009 Annual Meeting, Riverside, California, May 8, 2009.

• Bergmann, Uwe. “Archimedes Brought to Light.” Physics World 20, no. 11 (November 2007): 39–42.

  Uwe Bergmann describes how physicists have used X-ray fluorescence to uncover some of Archimedes' oldest writings that were hidden from sight in an ancient medieval prayer book.

• Bergmann, Uwe. “X-Ray Fluorescence Imaging Following Synchrotron Beam Excitation.” Conference on Applied Digital Imaging Techniques for Understanding the Palimpsest, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, April 1–4, 2004.

• Carey, C., M. Edwards, Z. Farkas, J. Herrman, L. Horváth, G. Mayer, T. Mészáros, P. J. Rhodes, and N. Tchernetska. “Fragments of Hyperides' Against Diondas from the Archimedes Palimpsest.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 165 (2008): 1–19.

• Carey, Chris. “Rescuing the Past: Prayer Books, Parchment and Multi-Spectral Imaging.” Lunch Hour Lectures, University College London, Darwin Lecture Theatre, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, November 20, 2008, 1:15 p.m.

  Please arrive early as places are limited. Admittance is on a first-come first-served basis

• Christens-Barry, William A. “LED Imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” Technical report.

• Christens-Barry, William A., Johanna R. Bernstein, and Mark Blackburn. “Imaging the Third Dimension of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” In Proceedings of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology PICS Conference, Montreal, 2001, 202–5.

• Christie's New York. The Archimedes Palimpsest. Sale catalogue 9058. Thursday, October 29, 1998.

• Down, Jane L., Gregory S. Young, R. Scott Williams, and Maureen A. MacDonald. “Analysis of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” In Works of Art on Paper, Books, Documents and Photographs: The International Institute for Conservation, Contributions to the Baltimore Congress, 2–6 September 2002, edited by Vincent Daniels, Alan Donnithorne, and Perry Smith, 52–58. London, 2002.

• Easton, Roger L., Jr. “The Archimedes Palimpsest: Texts and Technology.” Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Ave., Rochester, New York 14607, October 2, 2008, 7:30 p.m.

  585-276-8900; free with gallery admission

• Easton, Roger L., Jr., Keith T. Knox, and William A. Christens-Barry. “Imaging the Archimedes Palimpsest: Lessons Learned.” Rochester Institute of Technology; Boeing; Equipoise Imaging and Johns Hopkins University.

• Easton, Roger L., Jr., Keith T. Knox, and William A. Christens-Barry. “Multispectral Imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” In Proceedings of 32nd Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition Workshop (IEEE-AIPR'03), 111–16. 2003.

• Easton, Roger, and William Noel. “The Multispectral Imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” Gazette du Livre Médiévale 45 (2004): 39–49.

• Effect of High Flux X-radiation on Parchment. Report for Abigail Quandt, Walters Art Museum. Report no. Proteus 92195. August 27, 2005.

• Hall, Gene S. “Recovery of Text from Archimedes Palimpsest.” Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

• Knox, Keith T. “Archie Software Architecture.” Report, May 25, 2002.

• Knox, Keith T., and Roger L. Easton Jr. “Recovery of Lost Writings on Historical Manuscripts with Ultraviolet Illumination.” In Fifth International Symposium on Multispectral Color Science (Part of PICS 2003 Conference), Rochester, New York, 301–6. 2003.

• Knox, Keith T., Roger L. Easton Jr., and William A. Christens-Barry. “Image Restoration of Damaged or Erased Manuscripts.” European Signal Processing Conference, Lausanne, 2008.

• Knox, Keith T., Roger L. Easton Jr., and William A. Christens-Barry. “Multispectral Imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” 2003 Air Force Maui Optical & Supercomputing Site Conference, Maui, Hawaii, September 2003.

• Knox, Keith, Charles Dickinson, Lichao Wei, Roger L. Easton Jr., and Robert Johnston. “Multispectral Imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” In Proceedings of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology PICS Conference, Montreal, 2001, 206–10.

• Knox, Keith. “Enhancement of Overwritten Text in the Archimedes Palimpsest.” In Computer Image Analysis in the Study of Art, edited by D. G. Stork and J. Coddington. San Jose, California. Proceedings of SPIE 6810, 2007.

• Lowden, J. “Forging an Image of Byzantium.” In Icon and Word: The Power of Images in Byzantium, edited by A. Eastmond and L. James, 233–60. London, 2003.

• Malamud, Carl, Will Noel, Roger L. Easton Jr., and Michael B. Toth. “The Archimedes Palimpsest.” Google TechTalk 1, March 7, 2006.

  The Archimedes Palimpsest is a 10th Century medieval manuscript that is the subject of an ongoing technical, scientific and conservation effort at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Since 1999, the multidisciplinary team has been disbinding, conserving, imaging, analyzing, transcribing and studying the 174 parchment folios – yielding approximately 400Gb of data to date. The Palimpsest, which the team affectionately calls “Archie,” includes at least seven treatises by Archimedes.

• Morton, R. W., J. J. Gislason, G. S. Hall, and U. Bergmann. “Preliminary Investigations for X-Ray Imaging the Archimedes Palimpsest Using Elemental X-Ray Area Maps and Stereoview Elemental X-Ray Imaging.” Children of the Middle Waters Institute; Rutgers University; Walters Art Museum.

• Netz, Reviel, William Noel, Natalie Tchernetska, and Nigel Wilson, eds. The Archimedes Palimpsest. 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

  There are two general publications on the book. For the manuscript specialist:
  Volume 1: The Archimedes Palimpsest is the name given to a Byzantine prayer-book which was written over a number of earlier manuscripts, including three unique examples containing 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 comprising the Palimpsest. It will be of interest to manuscript scholars, classicists and historians of science.
  Volume 2: The Archimedes Palimpsest is the name given to a Byzantine prayer-book which was written over a number of earlier manuscripts. This volume provides colour images and transcriptions of three of the texts recovered from it. Pride of place goes to the treatises of Archimedes, including the only Greek version of Floating Bodies, and the unique copies of Method and Stomachion. This transcription provides many different readings from those made by Heiberg from what he termed Codex C in his edition of the works of Archimedes of 1910–1915. Secondly, fragments of two previously unattested speeches by the Athenian orator Hyperides, which are the only Hyperides texts ever to have been found in a codex. Thirdly, a fragment from an otherwise unknown commentary on Aristotle's Categories. In each case advanced image-processing techniques have been used to create the images, in order to make the text underneath legible.

• Netz, Reviel, and William Noel. The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book Is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity's Greatest Scientist. London, 2007.

  A second publication is designed for the general reader. The story of the amazing discovery of Archimedes' lost works.

• Netz, Reviel, and William Noel. The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secrets of the World's Greatest Palimpsest. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2007.

  The story of the amazing discovery of Archimedes' lost works.

• Netz, Reviel, Ken Saito, and Natalie Tchernetska. “A New Reading of Method Proposition 14: Preliminary Evidence from the Archimedes Palimpsest (Part 1).” Sciamus 2 (2001): 9–29.

• Netz, Reviel, Ken Saito, and Natalie Tchernetska. “A New Reading of Method Proposition 14: Preliminary Evidence from the Archimedes Palimpsest (Part 2).” Sciamus 3 (2002): 109–25.

• Netz, Reviel, ed. and trans. The Works of Archimedes: Translation and Commentary. Vol. 1, The Two Books On the Sphere and the Cylinder. Cambridge University Press, 2004.

• Netz, Reviel. Archimedes: Translation and Commentary, with a Critical Edition of the Diagrams and a Translation of Eutocius' Commentaries. Vol. II, Advanced Geometrical Works. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

• Netz, Reviel. Archimedes: Translation and Commentary, with a Critical Edition of the Diagrams and a Translation of Eutocius' Commentaries. Vol. III, The Mathematical-Physical Works. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

• Netz, Reviel. “The Archimedes Codex: The Many Layers of the World's Greatest Palimpsest.” Palo Alto Research Center Forum.

  Reviel Netz, Stanford University
  The Archimedes Palimpsest is a 13th century Greek prayerbook in which, just barely visible, one can see traces of what, it turns out, is the oldest surviving evidence for the works of Archimedes. Sold in auction, 8 years ago, for 2 million dollars, this unique manuscript has been the subject of an intensive collaborative project, involving both scientists and scholars from around the world. How did the works of Archimedes get buried so deep? What did we find as we uncovered them? The talk leads through three major breakthroughs, based on UV-Light, Multispectral Imaging, and X-Ray Fluorescence – revealing Archimedes' surprising insight into both finite and infinite methods (which, ultimately, underlie the techniques used in deciphering him).

• Netz, Reviel, Fabio Acerbi, and Nigel Wilson. “Towards a Reconstruction of Archimedes' Stomachion.” Sciamus 5 (2004): 67–99.

• Netz, Reviel. “Archimedes and Mar Saba: A Preliminary Notice.” In The Sabaite Heritage: The Sabaite Factor in the Orthodox Church: Monastic Life, Liturgy, Theology, Literature, Art and Archaeology, 195–99. Edited by J. Patrich.

• Netz, Reviel. “The Origin of Mathematical Physics: New Light on an Old Question.” Physics Today, June 2000, 31–36.

• Noel, William, and Roger L. Easton Jr. “Infinite Possibilities: Eight Years of Study of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” Annual General Meeting of the American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Franklin Hall, Philadelphia, April 26, 2007, 9:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Webcast.

  Presented by William Noel, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, and Roger L. Easton, Jr., Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology.

• Noel, William. “Splashing out of the Bath: The Digital Archimedes Palimpsest.” Public lecture, Music Room, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, District of Columbia, January 29, 2009, 5:30 p.m.

  Free; Reservations: 202 339 6940

• Noel, William. “Archimedes in Bits: The Digital Presentation of a Write-Off.” 1st Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, Penn Libraries Events and Exhibitions, University of Pennsylvania, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, October 24, 2008, 6 p.m.

  Free and Open to the Public

• Noel, William. “Archimedes in Bits: The Digital Presentation of a Write-Off.” 18th History of the Book Lecture, University of California, Los Angeles, Royce Hall 314, October 17, 2008, 3 p.m.

  Reservations are required

• Noel, William. “The Archimedes Palimpsest, Old Science Meets New Science.” In Proceedings of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology PICS Conference, Montreal, 2001, 199–201.

• Parenti, Stefano. “The Liturgical Tradition of the Euchologion ‘of Archimedes’.” Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata, 3rd ser., 2 (2005 [2006]): 69–87.

• Quandt, Abigail. “The Archimedes Palimpsest: Conservation Treatment, Digital Imaging and Transcription of a Rare Mediaeval Manuscript.” In Works of Art on Paper, Books, Documents and Photographs: The International Institute for Conservation, Contributions to the Baltimore Congress, 2–6 September 2002, edited by Vincent Daniels, Alan Donnithorne, and Perry Smith, 165–70. London, 2002.

• Tchernetska, N. “New Fragments of Hyperides from the Archimedes Palimpsest.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 154 (2005): 1–6.

• Tchernetska, N., E. Handley, C. Austin, and L. Horváth. “New Readings in the Fragment of Hyperides' Against Timandros from the Archimedes Palimpsest.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 162 (2007): 1–4.

• Toth, Mike, and Doug Emery. “The Digital Archimedes Palimpsest.” Text Encoding Initiative Annual Meeting, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London, United Kingdom, November 6–8, 2008.

• Toth, Mike, and Doug Emery. “The Digital Archimedes Palimpsest.” Google TechTalk, September 8, 2008.

  Following up on the March 7, 2006, Google TechTalk on the Archimedes Palimpsest, this presentation will discuss the challenges faced in hosting the digital multispectral images, metadata and encoded transcriptions on the Web. After a decade of scientific study of this historic and valuable manuscript, on October 29, 2008, all the Archimedes Palimpsest images and transcription data will be released to the public. The release candidate will be available at www.archimedespalimpsest.net in time for this TechTalk. The Program Manager and the Data Manager of the Archimedes Palimpsest Team will discuss advances in the imaging program since 2006, the collection and management of the data, the Greek transcriptions, and the encoding of the transcriptions in a standardized format. They will also discuss the free availability of the data under a Creative Commons license for the development of GUI's and applications linking the spatially aligned images and transcriptions.

• Toth, Mike, and Doug Emery. “The Digital Archimedes Palimpsest.” 32nd Internationalization & Unicode Conference, San Jose, California, September 9, 2008, 10:30 a.m.

• Toth, Mike, Doug Emery, and D. Neel Smith. “The Archimedes Palimpsest: A Medieval Manuscript in a Digital World.” Free public lecture, Department of Classics, University of California, Berkeley, 370 Dwinelle Hall, September 8, 2008, 5:00 p.m.

• Toth, Michael B. “Management of Digital Archives for Integrated Web Access to Scientific and Cultural Information.” In Proceedings of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology Archiving Conference, Arlington, Virginia, May 21–24, 2007, 175–78.

• Toth, Michael B., and Doug Emery. “Applying DCMI Elements to Digital Images and Text in the Archimedes Palimpsest Program.” In Metadata for Semantic and Social Applications: Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, Berlin, 22–26 September 2008, 163–68. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2008.

• Toth, Michael B., Roger Easton Jr., and Bill Christens-Barry. “Eureka! Dublin Core Based Metadata Supports the Archimedes Palimpsest Manuscript Imaging Program.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, Colima, Mexico, October 3–6, 2006, 120–29.

• Walvoord, Derek J. “Archimedes Palimpsest Character Recognition.” Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, July 9, 2004.

• Walvoord, Derek, and Roger Easton Jr. “Digital Transcription of the Archimedes Palimpsest.” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, July 2008, 100–104.

• Wilson, Nigel. “Archimedes: The Palimpsest and the Tradition.” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 92 (1999): 89–101.

• Wilson, Nigel. “The Archimedes Palimpsest: A Progress Report.” In A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum and Essays in Honor of Gary Vikan, 61–68. Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004).

• Wilson, Nigel. “The Secrets of Palimpsests.” L'Erasmo 25 (2005): 70–75.

• Young, Gregory. “Quantitative Image Analysis in Microscopical Thermal Stability Measurements.” Canadian Conservation Institute Newsletter 31 (June 2003): 10–11.