A missing page from a medieval manuscript, the Archimedes Palimpsest, has been found in a French museum. Historians previously thought this rare page was lost forever.
The Archimedes Palimpsest is a 177-page document from the tenth century. It holds unique copies of works by Archimedes, a mathematician from the third century B.C.E., along with other ancient writings.
William Noel, a curator of ancient manuscripts, once said this book "never ceases to give up its secrets." He noted it makes you think in new ways, from medieval history to the origins of calculus and physics.
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Start Your News DetoxArchimedes made key discoveries in math, engineering, and physics. In the sixth century C.E., Isidore of Miletus, who designed the Hagia Sophia, put together the first known collection of Archimedes' works.
Today, two of Archimedes' treatises, The Method and Stomachion, only exist in the Archimedes Palimpsest. An unknown scribe in Constantinople created this manuscript.
The Palimpsest's Journey
The manuscript later went to a monastery. In the 13th century, monks "washed, scrubbed and overwrote" the pages. They reused the parchment, which contained Archimedes' treatises, as a prayer book.
Recycling animal-skin writing materials was common then because they were very expensive. This is according to a statement from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
In 1906, a historian photographed every page of the manuscript. However, three pages went missing over the years. The manuscript was sold for $2 million in 1998 and later displayed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Researchers now say they have found one of these missing pages.
A Chance Discovery
The discovery began with a casual chat among colleagues. Victor Gysembergh, a historian at CNRS, mentioned that French kings used to keep valuable parts of their libraries in Blois.
Gysembergh suggested checking for a palimpsest in Blois. He told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that finding a Greek manuscript, especially a tenth-century scientific treatise, was very unexpected.
The document they found at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Blois was leaf 123 of the manuscript. It matched the 1906 photographs.
One side of the leaf has prayers that partly cover geometric diagrams and a section from On the Sphere and the Cylinder, Book I, Propositions 39 to 41. Much of this text is still readable. The other side has a 20th-century illustration of the prophet Daniel with two lions. The ancient text beneath it is currently hidden from traditional viewing methods.
The researchers published their findings in the German Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy. They plan to use X-rays and multispectral imaging to read the covered text. This method helped reveal other passages from the manuscript in the early 2000s.
Abigail Quandt, a senior conservator, previously documented and saved tiny pieces from the book. She stabilized flaking ink and made many repairs.
It is not yet known if the rediscovered page will join the rest of the manuscript in Baltimore.
Deep Dive & References
Lost page from Archimedes Palimpsest resurfaces in France - Agence France-Presse, 2026 Press Release: A new leaf of the Archimedes Palimpsest discovered in the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Blois - CNRS, 2026 Lost Page of Archimedes Palimpsest Found in French Museum - Artnet, 2026 Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes - Walters Art Museum, 2011
