The Manuscript that Travelled the World

There was no printing in ancient times.  A copy of a book could only be made by paying dearly to purchase it and hiring someone to copy it by hand, or even through theft.  Copying word by word was the only way to reproduce a book, but the paper and ink quality was such that often a manuscript often would not last long.  After scores of years, the manuscript had to be copied by hand over again to preserve the content.  We don't know what version the "Archimedes Palimpsest" is in the Walters Art Museum, but it is obviously the oldest in existence.

Since this manuscript is not Archimedes' own hand writing, why is it so valuable?

It is valuable because of his "thoughts."

Over 2,200 years ago, when stepping into a bath, Archimedes realized how to test the volume of real gold.  What's more, in every city where the Archimedes manuscript ever existed, people could see works stemming from this mathematical genius.

For example, after one of the creators of Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul studied Archimedes' work in the 6th century, the architectural structure and the special dome design are based on Archimedes' "On the Sphere and Cylinder."

Collectors believe that, with the manuscript, one could travel through time to wander around in Archimedes' mind witnessing the Law of Lever, the Archimedes' Screw, and the parabolic curve, etc., just like how we would try to breathe Van Gogh's air when standing in front of his "Starry Night."

Unfortunately, manuscripts often had a hard life at the hands of those who didn't know how to take care of them.

Two of the three known manuscripts went totally missing, and the sole remaining one was sold at a 1998 Christie's auction in New York to an anonymous buyer for US$2 million and has been on loan at the Walters Art Museum since 1999.  However, this manuscript was in pathetic condition, because, in the 13th century, an ignorant clerk probably tried to erase Archimedes' treaties with an acidic liquid such as orange juice to make room for the manuscript of a prayer book.  What's more, he cut the leaves in half, turned them 90 degrees, in order to create a book with pages half the size of the original one!

Thus, records of the Archimedes' wisdom were obliterated.

Miraculously, this "prayer book" was preserved, and some sharp eyes even detected the faint traces of Archimedes' work under the prayers.  An antique dealer's family in Paris had the prayer book in its collection for close to a hundred years till 1908.  A colored picture of the author was drawn on the parchment, and the collector, having no concept of how fragile the parchment was, even put glue to the spine to keep the manuscript from falling apart, resulting in damages and moldy spots.  In a word, then the manuscript arrived in the Walters Art Museum, it was almost beyond resurrection.

(To be continued…)