News Release

William Noel, associate curator of manuscripts and rare books at the Walters Art Museum, will discuss the Archimedes Palimpsest and the quest to recover its ancient writings on mathematics in a lecture on Thursday, Feb. 1, sponsored by the Friends of the Johns Hopkins University Libraries.

The lecture will begin at at 5:30 p.m. in the Bakst Theater at Evergreen House, 4545 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. The event is free and open to the public.

Noel will discuss how the Archimedes Palimpsest came to be in the care of the Walters and provide updates and details on the technology being used to reveal the hidden text while preserving the fragile, aging manuscript. The palimpsest contains a compendium of mathematical tretises by Archimedes of Syracuse, including the only copy of the treatise Method of Mechanical Theorems. It is also the only source in the original Greek for the treatise On Floating Bodies.

To RSVP or for information about this or other events sponsored by the Friends of the Johns Hopkins University Libraries, call 410-516-8327 or e-mail LibraryFriends@jhu.edu.

The Sheridan Libraries encompass the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and its collections at the Hutzler Reading Room, Garrett Library and the George Peabody Library.