by RevielNetz (Author), WilliamNoel (Author)
At a Christie's auction in October 1998, a battered medieval manuscript sold for two million dollars to an anonymous bidder, who then turned it over to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore for further study. The manuscript was a palimpsest-a book made from an earlier codex whose script had been scraped off and the pages used again. Behind the script of the thirteenth-century monk's prayer book, the palimpsest revealed the faint writing of a much older, tenth-century manuscript. Part archaeological detective story, part science, and part history, The Archimedes Codex tells the extraordinary story of this lost manuscript, from its tenth-century creation in Constantinople to the auction block at Christie's, and how a team of scholars used the latest imaging technology to reveal and decipher the original text. What they found was the earliest surviving manuscript by Archimedes (287 b.c.-212 b.c.), the greatest mathematician of antiquity-a manuscript that revealed, for the first time, the full range of his mathematical genius, which was two thousand years ahead of modern science.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Edition: 1st Da Capo Press Ed
Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc
Published: 02 Oct 2007
ISBN 10: 030681580X
ISBN 13: 9780306815805
Blogcritics.org, 2/10/09
A very interesting book, quite entertaining, sometimes funny, always engaging...A great treat for mystery lovers, classicists, mathematicians, and history buffs.
American Author's Association
[A] wonderful book...This is not just a math book or a science book or a history book--it is a book of mysteries and so much more...A most fascinating tale... Entertaining, yet educational and inspiring...This book made math exciting!
Isis, 5/6/09
Offers fascinating insight into modern research on ancient mathematical texts.
Blogcritics.org, 2/10/09
A very interesting book, quite entertaining, sometimes funny, always engaging A great treat for mystery lovers, classicists, mathematicians, and history buffs.
Blogcritics.org, 2/10/09
A very interesting book, quite entertaining, sometimes funny, always engaging...A great treat for mystery lovers, classicists, mathematicians, and history buffs.