A lost page of Archimedes' manuscript has been found in France

What the scientists found

Preliminary analysis showed that the discovered page corresponds to the 123rd page of Archimedes' palimpsest - one of the most important surviving ancient scientific manuscripts.

It contains a fragment of Archimedes' treatise "About sphere and cylinder", where the ancient Greek mathematician described geometrical properties of figures.

We are talking about parts of the 39th-41st theorems of the first book of this work.

What is Archimedes' palimpsest

Archimedes' Palimpsest is a 10th-century Greek manuscript containing several works by the famous mathematician from Syracuse.

During the Middle Ages, some of the text was erased in order to reuse the expensive parchment. In its place, religious texts were later written down.

This practice was common because parchment was made from animal skin and was very expensive.

Why the find is important

Although the original texts have been partially destroyed, modern technology makes it possible to recover the hidden layers of manuscripts.

In the early 2000s, scientists had already used multispectral imaging, which allowed them to discover previously unknown texts of Archimedes.

However, several pages of the manuscript were thought to be lost.

A sheet discovered in a French museum turned out to be one of these missing fragments.

How authenticity was confirmed

Researcher Victor Gisemberg of the CNRS compared the found sheet with photographs of the manuscript taken in 1906 by the Danish philologist Johan Ludwig Heiberg.

These photos are now preserved in the Royal Library of Denmark.

The comparison showed that the page found corresponds exactly to the lost leaf #123.

What is hidden beneath the image

One side of the page is partially overlaid with the text of the prayers, applied later.

On the other side is a 20th century illustration depicting the prophet Daniel between two lions.

This image probably also hides an ancient text by Archimedes, which cannot yet be read by conventional methods.

What will be done next

Scientists plan to conduct a new study of the page using modern technologies.

Among them:

• multispectral imaging
• x-ray fluorescence analysis using a synchrotron.

These techniques may allow them to read text that is hidden beneath layers of later images.

Why this discovery could change research

According to the researchers, the find has renewed scientists' focus on the need to re-examine the entire Archimedes palimpsest.

New technology could help read fragments that remained unreadable during previous studies.

Source of the study

Victor Gysembergh and colleagues.

The article was published in the journal Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (2026).