When starting out in conservation I really wanted to learn about the big picture of the field and its influences in objects that are culturally important to the world. Conservation includes so many people other than those who get to handle the objects and when I finished reading the Archimedes Codex by Netz & Noel, I had gained an entirely new perspective on the field.
It is a wonderful account of how this 10th century palimpsest came into the hands of the Walters Art Museum and the discovery of the incredible journey of its survival through time. It encompasses the entire history of this codex from the background of the great Archimedes to the scribe who wrote over its pages almost three hundred years after it was written. It also contains a great background on understanding modern mathematics and how Archimedes was hundreds of years ahead of his time. The palimpsest contains the oldest surviving manuscript in Greek of Archimedes’ Floating Bodies, Method and Stomachion.
You learn about the great importance of imaging in conservation and how different technologies are being produced so scholars may study its text once the conservator has done all she can do to stabilize its deterioration. And when I say you learn about imaging, I mean you really learn in a fun way about electromagnetism, wavelengths, how photons interact with electrons, X-rays and how the particle accelerator technology was used in assisting the imaging of some of the most illegible pages to ever be seen.
I was very touched by the honesty of William Noel as his attachment and love for the codex grew and he began to understand that the ravages of time allowed this piece to fall into wealthy private hands and saved it from extinction.
So if you are curious of a detailed account of the lengths that many great people go through to preserve a historical artifact I highly recommend reading The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity’s Greatest Scientist.
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