Scientists have deciphered the text of Ptolemy, hidden under the Latin manuscript

Over 200 years ago in 1819Roman Catholic cardinal and part-time researcher of ancient texts Angelo Mai discovered an ancient manuscript in the library of one of the abbeys in northern Italy. Since then, researchers have tried their best to decipher the manuscript, but they have been successful only on a few small passages. The problem was that in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, someone bleached the pages and reused the parchment to write on it the work of the theologian Isidore of Seville. In addition, Angelo May subjected the page to additional chemicals to remove the Latin text, which resulted in the pages turning dark brown. This made the task even more difficult. Nevertheless, American scientists still managed to decipher most of the text and find out its content.

Scientists have deciphered an ancient manuscript written by Claudius Ptolemy

How scientists restore ancient texts

It must be said that parchments, that is, leatheranimals, processed in a special way, was an expensive product. Therefore, ancient manuscripts were often reused. Not so long ago, we talked about the fact that scientists managed to discover an amazingly accurate ancient map of the night sky. It was also applied to parchment, which was subsequently reused.

Obviously, it was destroyed in this waymany valuable ancient texts. But, fortunately, thanks to modern technology, some of them can be restored at least partially, as happened with the text of Ptolemy. To do this, scientists use multispectral imaging. The meaning of the technology is that the pages are illuminated with light waves of different lengths and photographed.

To restore the ancient text, scientists used multispectral imaging

Depending on the composition of the ink, text can besee under light waves of one or another length. In this way, by combining the pictures taken, it is possible to get the text that was written before, and at the same time hide the manuscript that was written on top of it. According to the researchers themselves, it would be impossible to decipher the text without this technology, since only one or two words can be made out on each page. Multispectral imaging, on the other hand, made it possible to read more than half of the ancient text of Ptolemy.

Was the manuscript really written by Claudius Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy is famous as an astronomer,mathematician, optician, mechanic, geographer, astronomer and even music theorist. He lived and worked in Alexandria of Egypt, where he was engaged in astronomical observations. The ancient scholar was born in 100 AD and died in 170 AD.

Claudius Ptolemy - ancient scientist of Greek-Egyptian origin

How do scientists know that the manuscript belonged tospecifically Ptolemy? Unfortunately, the first and last pages of the text have not been preserved. Accordingly, the text does not say who its author is. However, scientists have discovered a number of characteristic features that are found only in the texts of Ptolemy. It is about the particular style and use of Greek phrases that make it easy to recognize Ptolemy. Of course, there could be another author who wrote the text under the influence of a famous scientist.

However, there is another, more convincingproof of Ptolemy's authorship. There is a phrase in the manuscript where the author writes that he came up with a new terminology in astronomy, designed to determine angles. At the same time, there is a book by Ptolemy, where his authorship is proven. In it, he uses the same new terminology for naming angles. Therefore, there can be no doubt.

Sketch of a meteoroscope consisting of nine rings

What text contains the ancient manuscript of Ptolemy

So, now the most interesting, what kind of textscientists have been trying to decipher the last 200 years? It was a manual for the manufacture of a meteoroscope, that is, an armillary instrument designed to measure the distances between stars. The device contains nine metal rings that rotate around each other. In his text, the ancient scientist recommended creating a device with a diameter of at least 30 centimeters, as the researchers report in the journal Archive for History of Exact Sciences.

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Finally, we recall that over the past fewOver the years, scientists have managed to decipher quite a lot of interesting ancient texts. Last year, we reported that scientists managed to read the Emperor's letter 500 years after it was written. The emperor carefully encrypted it, knowing that the letter could be intercepted. To find out to whom it was addressed and what text it contained, you can follow the link.