Archimedes Palimpsest

[ewilkie@ix.netcom.com (Everett Wilkie)]

This article appeared today in the Wilmington (DE) News Journal. I've 
deleted a few sentences, as indicated.

Ancient Greek's book will go to high bidder.
By Judie Glave
Associated Press

New York--A 2,200-year-old parchment volume that is the oldest known 
copy of Archimedes' work will go on the auction block this week despite 
claims from Greek officials that it is stolen.

The 174-page work, known as the Archimedes Palimpsest, contains the 
notes and calculations for two of the mathematician's most famous 
theories--"On Floating Bodies" and "Method of Mechanical Theorems."

A palimpsest is a work [...snipped]

The volume, which is expected to sell for $800,000 to $1.2 million, 
only recently surfaced.  It had not been seen since the 1920s, when 
Greek officialss say it was stolen from a library in Constantinople, 
now Istanbul.

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has threatened to sue if the 
Archimedes Palimpsest is not returned to the Athens National Library, 
Greek Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said.  But Christie's is 
convinced its consignor has a legal right to sell it, and the sale 
Thursday will proceed, spokeswoman Vredy Lytsman said.

Dr. Hope Mayo, Christie's consultant for manuscripts, said the work has 
been owned by the same family for 70 years, but she would not reveal 
the seller's identity.

Archimedes lived in the ancient Greek city of Syracuse [... snipped]

Scholars generally agree with many Greeks that the text should be kept 
in the public domain.

"It definitely ought to be in some public institution and not locked up 
in someone's family archive," said Marshall Clagett, an Archimedes 
expert and professor emeritus of history at the Institute for Advanced 
Study in Princeton, NJ.




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