The Scholarship of the Palimpsest

The Archimedes Palimpsest: A Progress Report
by Nigel Wilson of Lincoln College Oxford

Better still, one does not always need the help of the Latin in order to make out the text. A good example is the text on folio 81 verso, near the beginning of the treatise. Heiberg printed the opening lines of the Greek and then had to content himself with the Latin. But the first column of this folio can be read without much difficulty, except that the last line has almost entirely disappeared, and it provides us with the original corresponding to II p.318 line 12 � 319 line 4, as far as Moerbeke's superficiem esse. The text continues on folio 88 recto, of which I do not yet have a digital photo; after that the second column of folio 81 verso resumes at II p.319 line 12 at itaque lineam ABGD. It ends at p.320 line 2 descripti circuli. The Greek is once again legible without serious difficulty. This and some other less easily decipherable passages of Greek will be available for the next edition of the text.

Secondly we have the Stomachion. This is an enigmatic text, of which a part is preserved in an Arabic version. The beginning is found in the palimpsest and is extremely badly damaged. How long this essay was we cannot estimate with any precision. At one time it was thought to be no more than a description of a children's puzzle consisting of fourteen pieces of wood or ivory that fit together to form a square but may also be arranged in the shapes of many different objects. Thanks partly to the discovery that Heiberg misread a word which is actually plethos �quantity/large number� it is now possible to interpret the text as an essay in combinatorics.20

Finally Method. Here too, although not all the leaves have been restored and photographed digitally, there is already progress to report. An improved reading of proposition 14 has been possible.21 It has implications for the understanding of Greek ideas about infinity. There will certainly be more to say.

This paper is just a progress report. The imaging of the individual leaves continues, and even if the techniques used should turn out not to be capable of further refinement in the foreseeable future, the photographs that are still to be made will undoubtedly be of great value. The project is due for completion in 2007, when a considerably improved edition of Archimedes will be a realistic prospect, and this edition will not be the sole outcome of the collaborative enterprise.

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20 See a forthcoming paper by R. Netz, F. Acerbi and the present writer.

21 See the paper by R. Netz, K. Saito and N. Tchernetska in Sciamus 2 (2001) pp.9-29 and 3 (2002) pp.109-125.