The Archimedes Codex

William Noel talked about the book he co-authored, The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book Is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquitread more

William Noel talked about the book he co-authored, The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book Is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity’s Greatest Scientist, published by Da Capo Press. Mr. Noel displayed the palimpsest and many photographs. He also described the Archimedes Palimpsest Project which he directs. Mr. Noel was interviewed in his office at the Walters Art Museum.

In 1998 at an auction at Christie’s in New York, an anonymous American book collector purchased a 13th century prayer book for 2 million dollars. The prayer book is a palimpsest, a book that was written over older words that had been scraped off the animal skin or parchment pages. In this case, the prayer book was written over 10th century manuscript copies of treatises by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes (287-212 BC). The anonymous bidder deposited the manuscript with the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and has funded a 10-year project to read the works under the prayer book. Along with discov close

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The Archimedes Codex

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Program ID:
203070-1
Category:
Interview
Format:
Interview
Location:
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
First Aired:
Feb 09, 2008 | 8:15pm EST | C-SPAN 2
Last Aired:
Aug 23, 2009 | 7:13am EDT | C-SPAN 2

Airing Details

  • Feb 09, 2008 | 8:15pm EST | C-SPAN 2
  • Feb 11, 2008 | 6:02am EST | C-SPAN 2
  • Feb 16, 2008 | 5:46pm EST | C-SPAN 2
  • Feb 17, 2008 | 10:08am EST | C-SPAN 2
  • Feb 17, 2008 | 6:51pm EST | C-SPAN 2
  • Feb 18, 2008 | 1:48am EST | C-SPAN 2
  • Feb 23, 2008 | 3:44pm EST | C-SPAN 2
  • Mar 09, 2008 | 5:41pm EDT | C-SPAN 2
  • Mar 10, 2008 | 5:59am EDT | C-SPAN 2
  • Mar 15, 2008 | 9:44pm EDT | C-SPAN 2
  • Mar 23, 2008 | 4:23pm EDT | C-SPAN 2
  • Mar 30, 2008 | 11:43am EDT | C-SPAN 2
  • Aug 23, 2009 | 7:13am EDT | C-SPAN 2
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