William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes

翻译人员: Lyman Zhang 校对人员: David Shi

The great texts of the ancient world

能保留到今天的伟大古代文献

don't survive to us in their original form.

都不是他们的原本。

They survive because medieval scribes copied them

他们能流传至今，是因为

and copied them and copied them.

中世纪的不间断的手抄作业。

And so it is with Archimedes,

伟大的希腊数学家，阿基米德的作品

the great Greek mathematician.

也是如此。

Everything we know about Archimedes as a mathematician

我们对阿基米德作为数学家的全部了解

we know about because of just three books,

来自于他的三本著作，

and they're called A, B and C.

它们被称作《A》、《B》和《C》。

And A was lost by an Italian humanist in 1564.

1564年《A》从一位意大利人文学者手中遗失。

And B was last heard of in the Pope's Library

《B》最后一次出现则是1311年，罗马以北一百英里的

about a hundred miles north of Rome in Viterbo in 1311.

维泰博教皇图书馆。

Now Codex C was only discovered in 1906,

典籍《C》的手抄本直到1906年才刚刚被发现，

and it landed on my desk in Baltimore

1999年1月19日，他被送到巴尔的摩的，

on the 19th of January, 1999.

我的办公桌上。

And this is Codex C here.

这就是典籍《C》

Now Codex C is actually buried in this book.

确切的说，典籍《C》藏在这本书下。

It's buried treasure.

就像是地下的宝藏。

Because this book is actually a prayer book.

这其实是一本祈祷书。

It was finished by a guy called Johannes Myrones

这本书由一位名叫Johannes Myrones的人

on the 14th of April, 1229.

在1229年4月14日写完的。

And to make his prayer book he used parchment.

他用羊皮纸来写这本祈祷书。

But he didn't use new parchment,

但用的不是新羊皮纸，

he used parchment recycled from earlier manuscripts,

而是回收利用更古老的手稿，

and there were seven of them.

而且一共用了七本。

And Archimedes Codex C was just one of those seven.

阿基米德的《C》手抄本就是其中之一。

He took apart the Archimedes manuscript and the other seven manuscripts.

他将阿基米德和其它七份手稿拆开。

He erased all of their texts,

擦去了上面的所有文字，

and then he cut the sheets down in the middle,

然后他从中间把纸剪成两半，

he shuffled them up,

摞成一叠，

and he rotated them 90 degrees,

横过来，

and he wrote prayers on top of these books.

在那上面写下祈祷文。

And essentially these seven manuscripts

结果这七部手稿

disappeared for 700 years, and we have a prayer book.

整整失踪了700年，期间变成了一本祈祷书。

The prayer book was discovered by this guy,

1906年Johan Ludvig Heiberg

Johan Ludvig Heiberg, in 1906.

发现了这本祈祷书。

And with just a magnifying glass,

他在一个放大镜的帮助下，

he transcribed as much of the text as he could.

翻录了他能辨别的所有文字。

And the thing is that he found two texts in this manuscript

关键是，他在这些手稿中

that were unique texts.

发现了两段全新的内容。

They weren't in A and B at all;

它们不曾在《A》和《B》中出现过；

they were completely new texts by Archimedes,

而是未面世过的阿基米德著作：

and they were called "The Method" and "The Stomachion."

名为《方法》和《阿基米德方块》。

And it became a world famous manuscript.

这后来成为了一份举世闻名的手稿。

Now it should be clear by now

现在大家应该也注意到了

that this book is in bad condition.

这本书的保存状态相当糟糕。

It got in worse condition in the 20th century

在二十世纪Heiberg发现它之后，还更加恶化了。

after Heiberg saw it.

在二十世纪Heiberg发现它之后，还更加恶化了。

Forgeries were painted over it,

被伪造者涂改，

and it suffered very badly from mold.

被霉菌侵蚀。

This book is the definition of a write-off.

这本书就是标准的报废品。

It's the sort of book

这样的书，你可能认为

that you thought would be in an institution.

应该由一个专门机构处理。

But it's not in an institution,

但这本书却没被送进机构，

it was bought by a private owner in 1998.

而是在1998年由一位私人买家买下。

Why did he buy this book?

他为什么买这本书？

Because he wanted to make that which was fragile safe.

因为他希望那脆弱的，被保存下来。

He wanted to make that which was unique ubiquitous.

他希望那稀少的，被传播开来。

He wanted to make that which was expensive free.

他希望那昂贵的，可以惠及世人。

And he wanted to do this as a matter of principle.

对他而言，这是原则问题。

Because not many people are really going to read Archimedes in ancient Greek,

尽管用古希腊语读阿基米德著作的人可能不是很多，

but they should have the chance to do it.

但他们应该得到这些机会。

So he gathered around himself the friends of Archimedes,

所以他聚集了身边对阿基米德有兴趣的朋友，

and he promised to pay for all the work.

并保证承担所有费用。

And it was an expensive job,

这是一项费用十分高昂的工作，

but actually it wouldn't be as much as you think

但应该没有你们想象的那么昂贵

because these people, they didn't come from money,

这群人并不是为了钱参与这项工作的

they came from Archimedes.

是阿基米德将他们聚在了一起。

And they came from all sorts of different backgrounds.

他们的背景各不相同。

They came from particle physics,

从事的学科涉及粒子物理、

they came from classical philology,

经典哲学、

they came from book conservation,

书籍保存、

they came from ancient mathematics,

古代数学、

they came from data management,

数据管理、

they came from scientific imaging and program management.

科学成像、项目管理。

And they got together to work on this manuscript.

他们为了解读这份手稿聚在了一起。

The first problem was a conservation problem.

我们面对的第一个问题是修复保存的问题。

And this is the sort of thing that we had to deal with:

这是我们不得不面对的问题：

There was glue on the spine of the book.

书籍的背部有胶水。

And if you look at this photograph carefully,

仔细看这张照片你就会发现，

the bottom half of this is rather brown.

下半部分是棕色的。

And that glue is hide glue.

这一部分使用的是骨胶。

Now if you're a conservator,

对于书籍修复员来说，

you can take off this glue reasonably easily.

这种胶水是比较容易去除的。

The top half is Elmer's wood glue.

上半部分使用的胶水则类似Elmer的木胶。

It's polyvinyl acetate emulsion

是聚醋酸乙烯酯乳液

that doesn't dissolve in water once it's dry.

干了之后不溶于水。

And it's much tougher than the parchment that it was written on.

而且比羊皮纸要强韧很多。

And so before we could start imaging Archimedes,

所以在尝试扫描阿基米德的著作之前，

we had to take this book apart.

我们必须先把这本书拆开。

So it took four years to take apart.

我们用了四年时间才将它拆开。

And this is a rare action shot, ladies and gentlemen.

女士们，先生们，这是难得一见的“精彩瞬间”照。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Another thing is that we had to get rid of all the wax,

另外，我们还需要去除书上的蜡，

because this was used in the liturgical services

古人在希腊正教教堂

of the Greek Orthodox Church

礼拜时使用这本书

and they'd used candle wax.

所以上面有蜡烛上的蜡。

And the candle wax was dirty,

这种蜡很脏，

and we couldn't image through the wax.

我们无法透过它扫描文本。

So very carefully we had to mechanically scrape off all the wax.

所以我们非常小心的机械的去除了书页上所有的蜡。

It's hard to tell you exactly

这本书的状况到底有多糟糕

how bad this condition of this book is,

不容易说清楚

but it came out in little bits very often.

不过有很多书页都变成了很小的碎片。

And normally in a book, you wouldn't worry about the little bits,

一般来说我们不在意这些小小的碎片，

but these little bits might contain unique Archimedes text.

但是这本书的碎片上可能有阿基米德从未面世过的手稿。

So, tiny fragments

所以我们将小碎片

we actually managed to put back in the right place.

都恢复到了原来的位置。

Then, having done that, we started to image the manuscript.

这些工作完成之后，我们开始扫描手稿。

And we imaged the manuscript

我们用十四种不同波长的光

in 14 different wavebands of light.

扫描这些手稿。

Because if you look at something in different wavebands of light,

因为用不同波长的光扫描

you see different things.

你看到的结果是不同的。

And here is an image of a page

这是其中一页，用十四种波长的光扫描后，得到的图像。

imaged in 14 different wavebands of light.

这是其中一页，用十四种波长的光扫描后，得到的图像。

But none of them worked.

但是没有一种足够理想。

So what we did was we processed the images together,

所以我们就把这些图像放到一起处理，

and we put two images into one blank screen.

在空白屏幕上放上两张扫描图像。

And here are two different images of the Archimedes manuscript.

这就是两张不同的阿基米德手稿扫描图像。

And the image on the left

左侧的图片

is the normal red image.

是普通的红色图像。

And the image on the right is an ultraviolet image.

右边的则是紫外线扫描的图像。

And in the image on the right

在右边的图像上

you might be able to see some of the Archimedes writing.

你可能可以看到一些阿基米德的文本。

If you merge them together into one digital canvas,

如果你把他们融合到成一张数字图片，

the parchment is bright in both images

羊皮纸本身是亮色的，

and it comes out bright.

合成以后依然是亮的。

The prayer book is dark in both images

两种成像中祈祷文都是暗淡的

and it comes out dark.

重叠之后也是暗淡的。

The Archimedes text is dark in one image and bright in another.

阿基米德的文本在一种扫描件上是明亮的，在另外一种上则是暗淡的

And it'll come out dark but red,

重叠之后还是深的，但显出红色，

and then you can start to read it rather clearly.

较为清晰，可以阅读。

And that's what it looks like.

效果就是这样。

Now that's a before and after image,

这是前后的对比图，

but you don't read the image on the screen like that.

不过你不会这样直接阅读屏幕。

You zoom in and you zoom in

你会放大、放大、

and you zoom in and you zoom in,

放大、再放大

and you can just read it now.

现在就可以阅读了。

(Applause)

（掌声）

If you process the same two images in a different way,

如果对两种扫描图像做不同的处理

you can actually get rid of the prayer book text.

可以去除祈祷书的文字。

And this is terribly important,

这非常重要

because the diagrams in the manuscript

因为书上的图表

are the unique source for the diagrams

是公元前四世纪阿基米德在沙子上画出

that Archimedes drew in the sand in the fourth century B.C.

的图表的唯一存世记录。

And there we are, I can give them to you.

也就是我给你们展示的这些了。

With this kind of imaging --

用类似的成像扫描技术——

this kind of infrared, ultraviolet, invisible light imaging --

红外线、紫外线、不可见光成像——

we were never going to image through the gold ground forgeries.

我们完全无法穿透这些金色的伪造图案。

How were we going to do that?

那我们怎么办呢？

Well we took the manuscript,

我们决定用

and we decided to image it in X-ray fluorescence imaging.

X射线荧光成像技术扫描这些手稿。

So an X-ray comes in in the diagram on the left

请看左边的图示，X射线会将

and it knocks out an electron from the inner shell of an atom.

电子从原子内壳层撞出。

And that electron disappears.

这个电子就消失了。

And as it disappears, an electron from a shell farther out

这个电子消失后，外面电子层的电子就会

jumps in and takes its place.

跳入，顶替被撞出的电子。

And when it takes its place,

它进入消失电子的位置时

it sheds electromagnetic radiation.

会放射电磁辐射。

It sheds an X-ray.

放射X射线。

And this X-ray is specific in its wavelength

该X射线的波长与其撞击的原子

to the atom that it hits.

有一一对应的关系。

And what we wanted to get

我们希望找到的是

was the iron.

铁原子。

Because the ink was written in iron.

因为墨水中含有铁。

And if we can map

如果我们找到

where this X-ray that comes out, where it comes from,

X射线的出处，

we can map all the iron on the page,

就能找到书页上所有的铁，

then theoretically we can read the image.

理论上说，我们就看得出图片了。

The thing is that you need a very powerful light source to do this.

这样做需要非常强大的光源。

So we took it to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory

所以我们将这本书带到了位于加州的

in California,

斯坦福同步加速器辐射实验室，

which is a particle accelerator.

使用那里的粒子加速器。

Electrons go around one way,

电子和正电子

positrons go around the other.

的旋转方向相反。

They meet in the middle,

他们在中间相遇，

and they create subatomic particles

生成亚原子粒子

like the charm quark and the tau lepton.

如魅夸克和轻子。

Now we weren't actually going to put Archimedes in that beam.

我们并没有将阿基米德的手稿置于这种光线下。

But as the electrons go round at the speed of light,

但是当电子以光速运转的时候，

they shed X-rays.

会产生X射线。

And this is the most powerful light source in the solar system.

这是太阳系最强大的光源。

This is called synchrotron radiation,

叫做同步加速器辐射，

and it's normally used to look at things

常被用来观测

like proteins and that sort of thing.

蛋白质等物质。

But we wanted it to look at atoms, at iron atoms,

我们用它来观测原子，铁原子

so that we could read the page from before and after.

这样我们就能阅读之前，之后的文字。

And lo and behold, we found that we could do it.

你瞧，我们确实可以做到。

It took about 17 minutes to do a single page.

阅读一页书页需要十七分钟。

So what did we discover?

我们发现了什么呢？

Well one of the unique texts in Archimedes

两部独一无二的阿基米德手稿之一

is called "The Stomachion."

是《阿基米德方块》。

And this didn't exist in Codices A and B.

这是手稿《A》和《B》中都没有收录的内容。

And we knew that it involved this square.

这一理论有关这个方块。

And this is a perfect square,

这是一个被分成十四个部分

and it's divided into 14 bits.

的正方形。

But no one knew what Archimedes was doing with these 14 bits.

然后没有人知道阿基米德要用这十四个部分干什么。

And now we think we know.

现在我们认为我们知道了。

He was trying to work out

他在研究

how many ways you can recombine those 14 bits

要把这十四个部分还原成正方形

and still make a perfect square.

有多少种方法。

Anyone want to guess the answer?

想猜猜答案吗？

It's 17,152 divided into 536 families.

一共有1,7152种，可以分成536个门类。

And the important point about this

最重要的是

is that it's the earliest study in combinatorics in mathematics.

这是数学史上最早的组合学研究。

And combinatorics is a wonderful and interesting branch of mathematics.

组合学是一门奇妙有趣的数学分支。

The really astonishing thing though about this manuscript

这份手稿真正令人惊奇的

is that we looked at the other manuscripts

是祈祷书的书页上

that the palimpsester had made,

抄写员誊抄的

the scribe had made his book out of,

其它内容

and one of them was a manuscript containing text by Hyperides.

其中之一是希佩里德斯的文本。

Now Hyperides was an Athenian orator from the fourth century B.C.

希佩里德斯是一位公元前四世纪的雅典演讲家。

He was an exact contemporary of Demosthenes.

他和德摩斯梯尼（古希腊雄辩家）同处一个时代。

And in 338 B.C. he and Demosthenes together

公元前338年，他和德摩斯梯尼决定

decided that they wanted to stand up

一起反抗

to the military might of Philip of Macedon.

马其顿的腓力的军事统治。

So Athens and Thebes went out to fight Philip of Macedon.

所以雅典人和底比斯人开始与马其顿的腓力战斗。

This was a bad idea,

这是一个非常糟糕的主意，

because Philip of Macedon had a son called Alexander the Great,

因为马其顿的腓力的儿子叫做亚历山大大帝，

and they lost the battle of Chaeronea.

因此雅典人和底比斯人输掉了凯尔罗尼亚（Chaeronea）战役。

Alexander the Great went on to conquer the known world;

亚历山大大帝后来征服了已知世界；

Hyperides found himself on trial for treason.

希佩里德斯因叛国罪而受审。

And this is the speech that he gave when he was on trial --

这本手稿中的文本是他接受审判的时候发表的演讲——

and it's a great speech:

是一次伟大的演讲：

"Best of all," he says, "is to win.

“最好的结果，”他说，“是取胜。

But if you can't win,

但如果不能胜利

then you should fight for a noble cause,

就应该为高贵的事业而战，

because then you'll be remembered.

因为你会因此留名青史。

Consider the Spartans.

想想斯巴达人。

They won enumerable victories,

他们赢得了很多的战役，

but no one remembers what they are

但没有人记得他们

because they were all fought for selfish ends.

因为它们为自私的目的而战。

The one battle that the Spartans fought that everybody remembers

斯巴达人参与的战斗只有一场被人们记住

is the the battle of Thermopylae

就是塞莫皮莱战役

where they were butchered to a man,

他们几乎无人生还，

but fought for the freedom of Greece."

但是为希腊的自由而战。”

It was such a great speech

这次杰出的演讲让希佩里德斯被

that the Athenian law courts let him off.

雅典法庭无罪释放了他。

He lived for another 10 years,

他平安生活十年之后

then the Macedonian faction caught up with him.

马西顿的派系之争最终害死了他。

They cut out his tongue in mockery of his oratory,

他们把他的舌头割掉嘲笑他的能言善辩，

and no one knows what they did with his body.

他的尸体则下落不明。

So this is the discovery of a lost voice from antiquity,

因此古人在用他们一度失落的声音

speaking to us, not from the grave,

与我们对话，不是从坟墓里

because his grave doesn't exist,

希佩里德斯没有坟墓，

but from the Athenian law courts.

而是从雅典的法庭里。

Now I should say at this point

现在我必须申明

that normally when you're looking

一般我们阅读被擦除的中世纪手稿的时候，

at medieval manuscripts that have been scraped off,

一般我们阅读被擦除的中世纪手稿的时候，

you don't find unique texts.

是找不到独一无二的文本的。

And to find two in one manuscript is really something.

在一部手稿中发现两篇独一无二的文本已经相当了不起了。

To find three is completely weird.

找到三篇简直是太稀奇了。

And we found three.

而我们就找到了三份。

Aristotle's "Categories"

亚里士多德的《范畴》

is one of the foundational texts of Western philosophy.

是西方哲学的最为根本的文本之一。

And we found a third century A.D. commentary on it,

我们发现了一篇公元后三世纪的《范畴》评论，

possibly by Galen and probably by Porphyry.

作者可能是加仑或者是波尔菲利。

Now all this data that we collected,

我们收集的所有数据、

all the images, all the raw images,

所有图像、所有的原始图像、

all the transcriptions that we made and that sort of thing

所有转录的文本等等

have been put online under a Creative Commons license

都以一个知识共享执照在互联网上发布

for anyone to use for any commercial purpose.

任何人都可以将这些资料用作任何商业用途。

(Applause)

（掌声）

Why did the owner of the manuscript do this?

这份手稿的主人为什么这样做呢？

He did this because he understands data as well as books.

因为他了解数据和书籍的本质。

Now the thing to do with books,

关于书籍

if you want to ensure their long-term utility,

如果要长期流传

is to hide them away in closets

就要锁在柜子里

and let very few people look at them.

限制阅读的人数。

The thing to do with data, if you want it to survive,

而数据如果要长久流传

is to let it out and have everybody have it

就要对外公布开来，而且限制越少越好。

with as little control on that data as possible.

就要对外公布开来，而且限制越少越好。

And that's what he did.

他就是这么做的。

And institutions can learn from this.

相关机构可以学习这种做法。

Because institutions at the moment

因为相关机构现在的做法是

confine their data with copyright restrictions and that sort of thing.

用版权等手段重重限制他们的数据。

And if you want to look at medieval manuscripts on the Web,

现在如果你想要在网上阅读中世纪的手稿，

at the moment you have to go to the National Library of Y's site

你必须去某某国家图书馆或者

or the University Library of X's site,

某某大学图书馆，

which is about the most boring way

这可能是处理数码数据

in which you can deal with digital data.

最为无聊的方式。

What you want to do is to aggregate it all together.

更好的办法是将这些数据都统筹到一起

Because the Web of the ancient manuscripts of the future

因为在未来，古代手稿的网络，不是由这些机构创造的

isn't going to be built by institutions.

因为在未来，古代手稿的网络，不是由这些机构创造的

It's going to be built by users,

只有用户才能创造网络，

by people who get this data together,

包括搜集数据的人、

by people who want to aggregate all sorts of maps

整理不同的时代的地图的人，不管它们从哪里而来

from wherever they come from,

整理不同的时代的地图的人，不管它们从哪里而来

all sorts of medieval romances

以及各种中世纪的浪漫故事，不管它们从哪里而来

from wherever they come from,

以及各种中世纪的浪漫故事，不管它们从哪里而来

people who just want to curate their own glorious selection

以及那些只想建立个人华丽收藏的人们。

of beautiful things.

以及那些只想建立个人华丽收藏的人们。

And that is the future of the Web.

他们才是手稿网络的未来。

And it's an attractive and beautiful future,

这样的未来若能成真

if only we can make it happen.

一定美丽迷人。

Now we at the Walters Art Museum have followed this example,

现在我们沃尔特斯艺术博物馆已经接受了这种做法

and we have put up all our manuscripts on the Web

将我们所有的手稿在网络上公布

for people to enjoy --

供大众自由享用——

all the raw data, all the descriptions, all the metadata.

所有的原始数据、所有的描述、所有的元数据

under a Creative Commons license.

都用一个知识共享执照对外公布。

Now the Walters Art Museum is a small museum

沃尔特斯艺术博物馆是一个小博物馆

and it has beautiful manuscripts,

收藏了一些优美的手稿，

but the data is fantastic.

但这些数据非常棒。

And the result of this

因此

is that if you do a Google search on images right now

如果你用谷歌图片搜索

and you type in "Illuminated manuscript Koran" for example,

如输入“明亮可兰经手稿”

24 of the 28 images you'll find come from my institution.

出现的28张图片中有24张都来自我们的博物馆。

(Applause)

（掌声）

Now, let's think about this for a minute.

现在，让我们用一分钟思考。

What's in it for the institution?

对于一家机构来说这样做有什么好处？

There are all sorts of things that are in it for the institution.

对于机构来说有很多好处。

You can talk about the Humanities and that sort of thing,

你可以从人类文明之类的角度出发看这个问题，

but let's talk about selfish things.

不过我们说说自私的好处。

Because what's really in it for the institution is this:

对于机构来说，这样做真正的好处是：

Now why do people go to the Louvre?

为什么人们去罗浮宫？

They go to see the Mona Lisa.

他们是为了看蒙娜丽莎。

Why do they go to see the Mona Lisa?

他们为什么去看蒙娜丽莎？

Because they already know what she looks like.

因为他们知道蒙娜丽莎是什么样子的。

And they know what she looks like

人们在不同的地方看过无数蒙娜丽莎的照片

because they've seen pictures of her absolutely everywhere.

因此知道她长什么样。

Now, there is no need

其实根本没有必要

for these restrictions at all.

设立种种限制。

And I think that institutions should stand up

我认为相关机构应该有所作为

and release all their data under unrestricted licenses,

用自由执照发布他们所有的数据

and it would be a great benefit to everybody.

这样做将会造福大众。

Why don't we just let everybody have access to this data

我们应该让每个人都有机会接触到这些数据

and curate their own collection

在古代知识、美好事物的海洋中

of ancient knowledge and wonderful and beautiful things

建立自己的收藏

and increase the beauty and the cultural significance

让网络更美丽

of the Internet.

更具文化意义。

Thank you very much indeed.

非常感谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）