Ptolemy's lost manuscript discovered

Pandora Dewan, Newsweek, March 2023; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Photo of the recycled manuscript at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan undergoing imaging to reveal the hidden text (Lumière Technology/Pascal Cotte and Salvatore Apicella)

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Ptolemy's lost manuscript discovered in book found in medieval abbey

Researchers have revealed a hidden manuscript on a recycled piece of parchment, believed to have been written by the Greek mathematician, astronomer, and geographer from the ancient Roman Empire: Claudius Ptolemy [pronounced \tall-lem-mee\].

• Claudius Ptolemy (Greek Πτολεμαῖος, Ptolemaios, Latin Claudius Ptolemaeus, circa 100– circa 170 AD) [2] was a Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist [3], who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic, and Western European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the Mathēmatikē Syntaxis or "Mathematical Treatise," and later known as "The Greatest Treatise." (Wiki)

After years of painstaking work, the team, from the Sorbonne (Paris) and New York Universities, have deciphered the long-lost message detailing the construction and uses of an ancient tool for tracing distances and the stars.

"The pages in the manuscript with the scarcely visible Greek text were discovered back in 1819 by Angelo Mai, but he was unable to read most of the pages," Alexander Jones, one of the lead researchers on the study, told Newsweek.

"[He also] made the situation much worse for subsequent scholars by applying a chemical treatment to the pages that was supposed to bring out the writing but in fact just stained them dark brown."

For centuries, the parchment's contents remained a mystery. "Only a few words had previously been read from them, not enough to make it possible to tell more than it was [describing] something astronomical," Jones said.

In January 2020, the team began analyzing the manuscript in detail, using multispectral imaging techniques to reveal the hidden ink.

"By March 2020, under lockdown and collaborating primarily by email, we were succeeding in reading enough to identify the subject as a kind of armillary instrument — a complex assemblage of nested and mobile metal rings that can be used for astronomical observations and/or calculations — and, tentatively at first, to make the specific identification of it as Ptolemy's lost book on the nine-ringed instrument that he named 'Meteoroscope,'" Jones said.

Ptolemy's Meteoroscope was a tool to calculate heights and distances, often in relation to celestial bodies. It is referenced in several ancient texts, including Ptolemy's own book on mapmaking, the Geography. However, details of its structure and operation were lacking, until now. More:

• Ptolemy's lost manuscript discovered in book found in medieval abbey (msn.com)