A missing page from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the oldest surviving copy of the Greek mathematician’s writings, has been rediscovered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Blois, France. The 10th-century parchment, which had been missing for 120 years, contains portions of the treatise 'On the Sphere and the Cylinder' hidden beneath 20th-century illumination. The page was identified by a researcher from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) after being unaccounted for since 1906.
This discovery is significant because it completes a manuscript often cited as the most important scientific document ever sold at auction. The find has prompted calls for a new round of high-tech analysis, including synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence, to decipher previously illegible sections of the palimpsest. By reuniting this fragment with the primary manuscript housed at the Walters Art Museum, scholars hope to gain deeper insights into ancient mathematical and philosophical thought.