Overview
- Researchers at SLAC used X-ray fluorescence to expose erased Greek text in the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, revealing parts of Hipparchus’s catalog.
- The calcium-rich ink of the earlier layer allowed recovery of constellation descriptions and star coordinates attributable to the 2nd-century BCE astronomer.
- The project, led by CNRS scholar Victor Gysembergh with SLAC scientists Samuel Webb and Uwe Bergmann, produced clear images that already yield decodable passages.
- One recovered portion copies Aratus’s Phaenomena with appended coordinates and small star-map sketches linked to Hipparchus’s data.
- Early analysis suggests Ptolemy’s later catalogs drew on Hipparchus alongside other sources, while broader image processing and scholarly transcription continue.