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William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes
William Noel: Afsløringen af Arkimedes' tabte kodeks
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Hvordan læser man et 2000 år gammelt manuskript, som er blevet skåret op, skrevet på og malet over? Med en kraftfuld partikel-accelerator, selvfølgelig! William Noel, kurator af oldtidens bøger, fortæller den fascinerende historie bag Arkimedes' palimpsest, en byzantinsk bønnebog indeholdende hidtil ukendte originale værker af den oldgræske matematiker Arkimedes og andre.
William Noel - Curator, rare book scholar
William Noel is a curator who believes museums should make their collections free and available on the Internet. Full bio
William Noel is a curator who believes museums should make their collections free and available on the Internet. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
The great texts of the ancient world
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Oldtidens store skrifter
00:18
don't survive to us in their original form.
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er ikke tilgængelige i deres oprindelige form.
00:22
They survive because medieval scribes copied them
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De er tilgængelige, fordi middelalderens skrivere kopierede dem,
00:25
and copied them and copied them.
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igen og igen.
00:27
And so it is with Archimedes,
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Således er det også med Arkimedes,
00:30
the great Greek mathematician.
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den store græske matematiker.
00:32
Everything we know about Archimedes as a mathematician
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Alt som vi ved om Arkimedes som matematiker,
00:35
we know about because of just three books,
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ved vi fra blot tre bøger,
00:37
and they're called A, B and C.
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som hedder A, B og C.
00:39
And A was lost by an Italian humanist in 1564.
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A blev smidt væk af en italiensk humanist i 1564.
00:44
And B was last heard of in the Pope's Library
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B hørte man sidst om i pavens bibliotek
00:47
about a hundred miles north of Rome in Viterbo in 1311.
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cirka 160 kilometer nord for Rom i Viterbo i 1311.
00:53
Now Codex C was only discovered in 1906,
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Kodeks C blev først fundet i 1906,
00:57
and it landed on my desk in Baltimore
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og det havnede på mit skrivebord i Baltimore
01:00
on the 19th of January, 1999.
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den 19. januar 1999.
01:04
And this is Codex C here.
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Dette er Kodeks C.
01:06
Now Codex C is actually buried in this book.
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Kodeks C er faktisk gemt i denne bog.
01:11
It's buried treasure.
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Det er en gemt skat.
01:13
Because this book is actually a prayer book.
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Denne bog er nemlig faktisk en bønnebog.
01:15
It was finished by a guy called Johannes Myrones
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Den blev afsluttet af en fyr ved navn Ioannes Myronas
01:18
on the 14th of April, 1229.
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den 14. april 1229.
01:22
And to make his prayer book he used parchment.
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For at lave sin bønnebog brugte han pergament.
01:24
But he didn't use new parchment,
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Men han brugte ikke nyt pergament,
01:27
he used parchment recycled from earlier manuscripts,
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han brugte pergament, som var genbrugt fra tidligere manuskripter,
01:30
and there were seven of them.
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som der var syv af.
01:32
And Archimedes Codex C was just one of those seven.
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Arkimedes' kodeks C var blot et af disse syv.
01:35
He took apart the Archimedes manuscript and the other seven manuscripts.
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Han skilte Arkimedes' og de syv andre manuskripter ad.
01:41
He erased all of their texts,
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Han slettede al skriften,
01:44
and then he cut the sheets down in the middle,
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hvorefter han skar arkene over på midten,
01:46
he shuffled them up,
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han blandede dem,
01:49
and he rotated them 90 degrees,
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og han roterede dem 90 grader,
01:50
and he wrote prayers on top of these books.
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og han skrev bønner på dem.
01:53
And essentially these seven manuscripts
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Disse syv manuskripter
01:54
disappeared for 700 years, and we have a prayer book.
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forsvandt nu i 700 år, og vi har en bønnebog.
01:59
The prayer book was discovered by this guy,
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Bønnebogen blev fundet af denne fyr,
02:02
Johan Ludvig Heiberg, in 1906.
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Johan Ludvig Heiberg, i 1906.
02:05
And with just a magnifying glass,
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Kun ved hjælp af en lup
02:06
he transcribed as much of the text as he could.
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tydede han så meget af teksten, som han kunne.
02:09
And the thing is that he found two texts in this manuscript
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Sagen er, at han fandt to tekster i dette manuskript,
02:12
that were unique texts.
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som var unikke.
02:14
They weren't in A and B at all;
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De fandtes slet ikke i A og B;
02:15
they were completely new texts by Archimedes,
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De var helt nye tekster af Arkimedes,
02:17
and they were called "The Method" and "The Stomachion."
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og de hedder "Metoden" og "Stomachion".
02:20
And it became a world famous manuscript.
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Manuskriptet blev verdensberømt.
02:23
Now it should be clear by now
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På dette tidspunkt skal det forstås,
02:24
that this book is in bad condition.
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at denne bog er i dårlig stand.
02:27
It got in worse condition in the 20th century
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Dens stand forværredes i det 20. århundrede,
02:31
after Heiberg saw it.
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efter Heiberg så den.
02:32
Forgeries were painted over it,
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Falsknerier blev malet i den,
02:34
and it suffered very badly from mold.
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og den led frygteligt af mug.
02:37
This book is the definition of a write-off.
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Denne bog er selve definitionen af skrammel.
02:41
It's the sort of book
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Det er den slags bog,
02:42
that you thought would be in an institution.
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som burde være på en institution.
02:45
But it's not in an institution,
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Men den er ikke på en institution,
02:47
it was bought by a private owner in 1998.
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den blev købt af en privat ejer i 1998.
02:52
Why did he buy this book?
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Hvorfor købte han bogen?
02:54
Because he wanted to make that which was fragile safe.
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Fordi han ville redde det skrøbelige.
02:57
He wanted to make that which was unique ubiquitous.
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Han ville gøre det unikke universelt tilgængeligt.
03:00
He wanted to make that which was expensive free.
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Han ville gøre det dyre gratis.
03:05
And he wanted to do this as a matter of principle.
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Dette gjorde han som en principsag.
03:08
Because not many people are really going to read Archimedes in ancient Greek,
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Fordi mange mennesker ville aldrig læse Arkimedes på oldgræsk,
03:13
but they should have the chance to do it.
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men de burde have muligheden for det.
03:15
So he gathered around himself the friends of Archimedes,
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Så han samlede Arkimedes' venner,
03:19
and he promised to pay for all the work.
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og lovede at han ville betale for alt arbejdet.
03:21
And it was an expensive job,
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Det var et dyrt arbejde,
03:23
but actually it wouldn't be as much as you think
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men det kom ikke til at koste så meget, som man kunne tro,
03:26
because these people, they didn't come from money,
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da disse folk ikke kom for pengene,
03:28
they came from Archimedes.
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de kom for Arkimedes.
03:30
And they came from all sorts of different backgrounds.
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Og de havde alle mulige baggrunde.
03:32
They came from particle physics,
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De kom fra partikelfysikken,
03:34
they came from classical philology,
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de kom fra klassisk filologi,
03:36
they came from book conservation,
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de kom fra bog-konservering,
03:37
they came from ancient mathematics,
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de kom fra oldtidens matematik,
03:40
they came from data management,
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de kom fra data-styring,
03:42
they came from scientific imaging and program management.
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de kom fra videnskabelig billedbehandling og program-styring.
03:45
And they got together to work on this manuscript.
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De fandt sammen for at arbejde på dette manuskript.
03:48
The first problem was a conservation problem.
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Det første problem var konserveringen.
03:52
And this is the sort of thing that we had to deal with:
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Dette er et eksempel på hvad vi havde at gøre med:
03:55
There was glue on the spine of the book.
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Der var lim på bogens ryg.
03:57
And if you look at this photograph carefully,
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Hvis I ser nøje efter på billedet,
03:59
the bottom half of this is rather brown.
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er den nederste halvdel af bogen ganske brun.
04:01
And that glue is hide glue.
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Limen er udvundet af dyrehud.
04:03
Now if you're a conservator,
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Hvis man er konservator,
04:04
you can take off this glue reasonably easily.
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kan man relativt nemt fjerne denne slags lim.
04:06
The top half is Elmer's wood glue.
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På den øverste del har man brugt trælim.
04:09
It's polyvinyl acetate emulsion
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Det er en emulsion af polyvinylacetat,
04:12
that doesn't dissolve in water once it's dry.
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som ikke kan opløses i vand, når den først er tør.
04:14
And it's much tougher than the parchment that it was written on.
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Den er meget sejere, end pergamentet den blev brugt på.
04:17
And so before we could start imaging Archimedes,
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Så før vi kunne begynde at scanne Arkimedes,
04:21
we had to take this book apart.
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var vi nødt til at skille bogen ad.
04:22
So it took four years to take apart.
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Det tog fire år at skille bogen ad.
04:25
And this is a rare action shot, ladies and gentlemen.
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Dette, mine damer og herrer, er et sjældent billede af processen.
04:29
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
04:31
Another thing is that we had to get rid of all the wax,
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Derefter måtte vi fjerne al voksen,
04:36
because this was used in the liturgical services
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da man brugte det under gudstjenesterne
04:38
of the Greek Orthodox Church
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i den græsk-ortodokse kirke;
04:40
and they'd used candle wax.
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og man brugte voks fra lys.
04:41
And the candle wax was dirty,
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Voksen fra lysene var beskidt,
04:43
and we couldn't image through the wax.
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og vi kunne ikke scanne igennem voksen.
04:44
So very carefully we had to mechanically scrape off all the wax.
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Så med den største forsigtighed måtte vi mekanisk skrabe al voksen af.
04:47
It's hard to tell you exactly
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Det er svært at beskrive præcist,
04:49
how bad this condition of this book is,
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hvor dårlig en stand bogen er i,
04:52
but it came out in little bits very often.
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men ofte kom den i små stykker.
04:55
And normally in a book, you wouldn't worry about the little bits,
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Under normale forhold ville man ikke bruge energi på de små stykker,
04:57
but these little bits might contain unique Archimedes text.
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men disse små stykker kunne indeholde unik tekst af Arkimedes.
05:00
So, tiny fragments
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Så det lykkedes os faktisk,
05:02
we actually managed to put back in the right place.
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at sætte bittesmå fragmenter på plads.
05:07
Then, having done that, we started to image the manuscript.
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Da vi havde gjort det, kunne vi begynde scanningen af manuskriptet.
05:11
And we imaged the manuscript
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Vi scannede manuskriptet
05:12
in 14 different wavebands of light.
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under 14 forskellige lysfrekvenser.
05:14
Because if you look at something in different wavebands of light,
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Fordi hvis man ser på noget under forskellige lysfrekvenser,
05:18
you see different things.
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ser man forskellige ting.
05:19
And here is an image of a page
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Her er et billede af en side
05:21
imaged in 14 different wavebands of light.
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scannet under 14 forskellige lysfrekvenser.
05:24
But none of them worked.
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Men ingen af dem virkede.
05:26
So what we did was we processed the images together,
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Så vi gjorde det, at vi scannede billederne sammen,
05:30
and we put two images into one blank screen.
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og vi satte to billeder sammen på en blank skærm.
05:33
And here are two different images of the Archimedes manuscript.
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Her er to forskellige billeder af Arkimedes' manuskript.
05:36
And the image on the left
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Billedet til venstre
05:38
is the normal red image.
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er det normale røde billede.
05:39
And the image on the right is an ultraviolet image.
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Billedet til højre er et ultraviolet billede.
05:41
And in the image on the right
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På billedet til højre
05:42
you might be able to see some of the Archimedes writing.
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kan I måske se noget af Arkimedes' skrift.
05:45
If you merge them together into one digital canvas,
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Hvis man samler dem på et digitalt lærred,
05:48
the parchment is bright in both images
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er pergamentet lyst på begge billeder,
05:51
and it comes out bright.
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og det fremstår som lyst.
05:53
The prayer book is dark in both images
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Bønnebogen er mørk på begge billeder,
05:56
and it comes out dark.
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og den fremstår som mørk.
05:57
The Archimedes text is dark in one image and bright in another.
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Arkimedes' skrift er mørk på et billede og lyst på et andet.
06:01
And it'll come out dark but red,
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Den fremstår som mørkerød,
06:03
and then you can start to read it rather clearly.
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og så kan man begynde at læse den ret klart.
06:05
And that's what it looks like.
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Sådan ser det ud.
06:08
Now that's a before and after image,
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Dette er et før og efter-billede,
06:11
but you don't read the image on the screen like that.
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men sådan læser man det ikke på skærmen.
06:14
You zoom in and you zoom in
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Man zoomer ind,
06:17
and you zoom in and you zoom in,
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igen og igen,
06:21
and you can just read it now.
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og nu kan man bare læse det.
06:23
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
06:29
If you process the same two images in a different way,
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Hvis man fremkalder de samme to billeder på en anden måde,
06:33
you can actually get rid of the prayer book text.
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kan man faktisk slippe af med bønnebogens skrift.
06:35
And this is terribly important,
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Dette er meget vigtigt,
06:36
because the diagrams in the manuscript
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fordi diagrammerne i manuskriptet
06:39
are the unique source for the diagrams
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er eneste kilde for diagrammerne,
06:42
that Archimedes drew in the sand in the fourth century B.C.
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som Arkimedes tegnede i sandet i det 4. århundrede før vor tidsregning.
06:44
And there we are, I can give them to you.
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Her er de, jeg viser dem til jer.
06:47
With this kind of imaging --
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Med denne type scanning --
06:50
this kind of infrared, ultraviolet, invisible light imaging --
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denne slags infrarøde, ultraviolette, usynligt lys-scanning --
06:53
we were never going to image through the gold ground forgeries.
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kunne vi aldrig scanne igennem de guld-baserede falsknerier.
06:55
How were we going to do that?
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Hvordan skulle vi kunne gøre det?
06:57
Well we took the manuscript,
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Vi tog manuskriptet,
06:59
and we decided to image it in X-ray fluorescence imaging.
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og vi besluttede at scanne det ved hjælp af røntgenfluorescens.
07:03
So an X-ray comes in in the diagram on the left
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En røntgen-stråle kommer ind på diagrammet til venstre,
07:06
and it knocks out an electron from the inner shell of an atom.
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og det banker en elektron løs fra et atoms inderste bane.
07:10
And that electron disappears.
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Denne elektron forsvinder.
07:12
And as it disappears, an electron from a shell farther out
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Som den forsvinder, hopper en elektron fra en ydre bane,
07:16
jumps in and takes its place.
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ind og tager dens plads.
07:18
And when it takes its place,
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Når den tager dens plads,
07:20
it sheds electromagnetic radiation.
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giver den elektromagnetisk stråling fra sig.
07:22
It sheds an X-ray.
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Den afgiver en røntgenstråle.
07:24
And this X-ray is specific in its wavelength
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Denne røntgenstråle har en særlig frekvens
07:27
to the atom that it hits.
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for det atom, som den rammer.
07:28
And what we wanted to get
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Det som vi sigtede efter
07:31
was the iron.
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var jern.
07:32
Because the ink was written in iron.
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Fordi blækket var lavet af jern.
07:34
And if we can map
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Hvis vi kan kortlægge,
07:36
where this X-ray that comes out, where it comes from,
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hvor denne røntgenstråle kommer fra,
07:38
we can map all the iron on the page,
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kan vi kortlægge alt jernet på siden,
07:41
then theoretically we can read the image.
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og så kan vi, teoretisk set, læse billedet.
07:43
The thing is that you need a very powerful light source to do this.
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Sagen er, at man skal bruge en meget kraftig lyskilde for at kunne gøre det.
07:47
So we took it to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory
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Så vi bragte manuskriptet til Stanfords SSRL
07:51
in California,
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i Californien,
07:52
which is a particle accelerator.
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som er en partikel-accelerator.
07:54
Electrons go around one way,
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Elektroner kommer fra den ene side,
07:56
positrons go around the other.
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og positroner kommer fra den anden.
07:57
They meet in the middle,
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De mødes på midten,
07:59
and they create subatomic particles
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hvor de skaber sub-atomare partikler
08:01
like the charm quark and the tau lepton.
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som charm-kvarken og tau-leptonen.
08:03
Now we weren't actually going to put Archimedes in that beam.
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Vi ville ikke lægge manuskriptet ind i strålen.
08:06
But as the electrons go round at the speed of light,
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Men når elektronerne bevæger sig rundt med lysets hastighed,
08:10
they shed X-rays.
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afgiver de røntgenstråler.
08:11
And this is the most powerful light source in the solar system.
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Dette er den stærkeste lyskilde i solsystemet.
08:14
This is called synchrotron radiation,
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Det kaldes synkrotron-stråling,
08:16
and it's normally used to look at things
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og man bruger det normalt til at se på ting
08:17
like proteins and that sort of thing.
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som proteiner og den slags.
08:19
But we wanted it to look at atoms, at iron atoms,
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Men vi ville bruge den til at se på atomer, på jern-atomer,
08:23
so that we could read the page from before and after.
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så vi kunne læse siden fra før og efter.
08:26
And lo and behold, we found that we could do it.
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Og se nu her, vi opdagede at det var muligt.
08:28
It took about 17 minutes to do a single page.
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Hver side tog 17 minutter at fuldføre.
08:32
So what did we discover?
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Så, hvad fandt vi ud af?
08:34
Well one of the unique texts in Archimedes
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En af de unikke skrifter i manuskriptet
08:37
is called "The Stomachion."
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hedder "Stomachion"
08:38
And this didn't exist in Codices A and B.
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Denne fandtes ikke i kodeks A og B.
08:41
And we knew that it involved this square.
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Vi vidste, at den havde at gøre med denne firkant.
08:43
And this is a perfect square,
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Det er et perfekt kvadrat,
08:45
and it's divided into 14 bits.
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og det er opdelt i 14 stykker.
08:47
But no one knew what Archimedes was doing with these 14 bits.
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Men ingen vidste hvad Arkimedes lavede med disse 14 stykker.
08:50
And now we think we know.
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Men nu tror vi, at vi ved det.
08:52
He was trying to work out
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Han prøvede at finde ud af,
08:54
how many ways you can recombine those 14 bits
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hvor mange måder man kunne sætte disse 14 stykker sammen på
08:56
and still make a perfect square.
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og stadig have et perfekt kvadrat.
08:59
Anyone want to guess the answer?
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Kan I gætte svaret?
09:02
It's 17,152 divided into 536 families.
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Det er 17.152 fordelt på 536 familier.
09:07
And the important point about this
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Det vigtige med det her er,
09:10
is that it's the earliest study in combinatorics in mathematics.
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at det er det tidligste studie i kombinatorik i matematikken.
09:14
And combinatorics is a wonderful and interesting branch of mathematics.
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Kombinatorik er en vidunderlig og interessant matematisk disciplin.
09:17
The really astonishing thing though about this manuscript
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Det virkeligt forbløffende ved dette manuskript er,
09:21
is that we looked at the other manuscripts
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at vi så på de andre manuskripter,
09:23
that the palimpsester had made,
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som palimpsest-mageren havde lavet,
09:24
the scribe had made his book out of,
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som skriveren havde lavet denne bog af,
09:27
and one of them was a manuscript containing text by Hyperides.
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og et af dem var et manuskript indeholdende tekst af Hypereides.
09:30
Now Hyperides was an Athenian orator from the fourth century B.C.
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Hypereides var en taler fra Athen i det 4. århundrede f.v.t.
09:34
He was an exact contemporary of Demosthenes.
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Han levede på samme tid som Demosthenes.
09:37
And in 338 B.C. he and Demosthenes together
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I 338 f.v.t. bestemte han og Demosthenes
09:41
decided that they wanted to stand up
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sig for at gøre modstand mod
09:43
to the military might of Philip of Macedon.
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Filip 2. af Makedoniens militære magt.
09:45
So Athens and Thebes went out to fight Philip of Macedon.
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Så Athen og Theben gik i krig mod Filip 2. af Makedonien.
09:48
This was a bad idea,
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Det var en dårlig idé,
09:50
because Philip of Macedon had a son called Alexander the Great,
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for Filip 2. af Makedonien havde en søn ved navn Alexander den Store,
09:53
and they lost the battle of Chaeronea.
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og de tabte slaget ved Chaeronea.
09:55
Alexander the Great went on to conquer the known world;
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Alexander den Store endte med at erobre den kendte verden;
09:58
Hyperides found himself on trial for treason.
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Hypereides blev retsforfulgt for forræderi.
10:01
And this is the speech that he gave when he was on trial --
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Dette er hans forvarstale fra retssagen --
10:04
and it's a great speech:
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og det er en stor tale:
10:06
"Best of all," he says, "is to win.
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"Det bedste," siger han, "er at vinde.
10:08
But if you can't win,
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Men hvis man ikke kan vinde,
10:10
then you should fight for a noble cause,
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bør man kæmpe for en ædel sag,
10:12
because then you'll be remembered.
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for så vil man blive husket.
10:13
Consider the Spartans.
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Tag spartanerne som eksempel.
10:15
They won enumerable victories,
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De vandt utallige sejre,
10:17
but no one remembers what they are
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1832
men ingen husker dem,
10:18
because they were all fought for selfish ends.
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fordi de alle blev udkæmpet af egoistiske grunde.
10:21
The one battle that the Spartans fought that everybody remembers
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Det eneste slag, som spartanerne deltog i, som alle kan huske,
10:24
is the the battle of Thermopylae
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er slaget ved Thermopylæ,
10:26
where they were butchered to a man,
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2003
hvor de alle blev slagtet,
10:28
but fought for the freedom of Greece."
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1932
men kæmpede for Grækenlands frihed."
10:30
It was such a great speech
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2265
Talen var så god,
10:32
that the Athenian law courts let him off.
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at retten i Athen lod ham slippe uden straf.
10:36
He lived for another 10 years,
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Han levede i 10 år til,
10:38
then the Macedonian faction caught up with him.
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før den makedonske hær fangede ham.
10:41
They cut out his tongue in mockery of his oratory,
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De skar hans tunge af for at spotte hans tale,
10:43
and no one knows what they did with his body.
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og ingen ved, hvad de gjorde med liget.
10:47
So this is the discovery of a lost voice from antiquity,
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Så dette er opdagelsen af en glemt stemme fra antikken,
10:50
speaking to us, not from the grave,
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1982
som taler til os, ikke fra graven,
10:52
because his grave doesn't exist,
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1478
fordi hans grav findes ikke,
10:53
but from the Athenian law courts.
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men fra retten i Athen.
10:55
Now I should say at this point
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På dette tidspunkt bør jeg nævne,
10:57
that normally when you're looking
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at man normalt ikke, når man ser på
10:59
at medieval manuscripts that have been scraped off,
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1996
manuskripter fra middelalderen, som er blevet skrabet,
11:01
you don't find unique texts.
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finder unikke skrifter.
11:03
And to find two in one manuscript is really something.
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Så at finde to i ét manuskript er noget særligt.
11:06
To find three is completely weird.
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3217
At finde tre er fuldstændig mærkeligt.
11:09
And we found three.
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Vi fandt tre.
11:11
Aristotle's "Categories"
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Aristoteles' "Kategorier"
11:12
is one of the foundational texts of Western philosophy.
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2453
er en af de grundlæggende skrifter i den vestlige verdens filosofi.
11:15
And we found a third century A.D. commentary on it,
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Vi fandt en kommentar om den fra det 3. århundrede.
11:19
possibly by Galen and probably by Porphyry.
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3184
Muligvis af Galén og sandsynligvis af Porfyr.
11:22
Now all this data that we collected,
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Al det data som vi har samlet,
11:24
all the images, all the raw images,
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2535
alle billederne, alle de rå billeder,
11:27
all the transcriptions that we made and that sort of thing
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2350
alle transskriptionerne, som vi lavede, og den slags
11:29
have been put online under a Creative Commons license
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er lagt på nettet under en Creative Commons licens,
11:33
for anyone to use for any commercial purpose.
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så det kan bruges af alle til ethvert kommercielt formål.
11:36
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
11:42
Why did the owner of the manuscript do this?
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Hvorfor gjorde manuskriptets ejer dette?
11:45
He did this because he understands data as well as books.
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Det gjorde han, fordi han forstår data såvel som bøger.
11:49
Now the thing to do with books,
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Det man skal gøre med bøger,
11:51
if you want to ensure their long-term utility,
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2131
hvis man vil sikre deres langvarige brug,
11:53
is to hide them away in closets
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2216
er at gemme dem i skabe,
11:55
and let very few people look at them.
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1800
og lade meget få mennesker se dem.
11:57
The thing to do with data, if you want it to survive,
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Det man skal gøre med data, hvis man vil have det til at overleve,
11:59
is to let it out and have everybody have it
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3301
er at slippe det fri og lade alle få det
12:02
with as little control on that data as possible.
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med så lidt kontrol af dataene som muligt.
12:05
And that's what he did.
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Og det er, hvad han gjorde.
12:07
And institutions can learn from this.
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Og institutioner kan lære af dette.
12:10
Because institutions at the moment
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For i øjeblikket indskrænker institutioner
12:13
confine their data with copyright restrictions and that sort of thing.
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deres data med ophavsretsrestriktioner og den slags.
12:16
And if you want to look at medieval manuscripts on the Web,
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2192
Hvis man vil se på manuskripter fra middelalderen på nettet,
12:18
at the moment you have to go to the National Library of Y's site
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3471
er man nødt til at gå til Nationalbiblioteket Y's hjemmeside
12:21
or the University Library of X's site,
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eller Universitetsbiblioteket X's hjemmeside,
12:24
which is about the most boring way
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1899
som er den mest kedelige måde,
12:26
in which you can deal with digital data.
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man kan behandle digitale data på.
12:28
What you want to do is to aggregate it all together.
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Det man skal gøre er, at samle det hele.
12:31
Because the Web of the ancient manuscripts of the future
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Fordi fremtidens net af oldtidens manuskripter
12:34
isn't going to be built by institutions.
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vil ikke blive bygget af institutioner.
12:36
It's going to be built by users,
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3108
Det vil blive bygget af brugere,
12:39
by people who get this data together,
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af folk som samler disse data,
12:41
by people who want to aggregate all sorts of maps
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3535
af folk som vil samle alle mulige slags kort
12:44
from wherever they come from,
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1632
fra det sted de kommer fra,
12:46
all sorts of medieval romances
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1800
alle mulige slags romaner fra middelalderen
12:48
from wherever they come from,
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1549
fra det sted de kommer fra,
12:49
people who just want to curate their own glorious selection
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3783
folk som blot vil lave deres egen pragtfulde samling
12:53
of beautiful things.
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af smukke ting.
12:55
And that is the future of the Web.
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1617
Det er nettets fremtid.
12:56
And it's an attractive and beautiful future,
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Det er en tiltrækkende og smuk fremtid,
13:00
if only we can make it happen.
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1602
hvis vi blot kan bringe den til udfoldelse.
13:01
Now we at the Walters Art Museum have followed this example,
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Vi, på Walters Art Museum, har fulgt dette eksempel,
13:04
and we have put up all our manuscripts on the Web
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og vi har lagt alle vore manuskripter ud på nettet,
13:08
for people to enjoy --
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1683
så folk kan nyde dem --
13:09
all the raw data, all the descriptions, all the metadata.
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2584
al råmaterialet, alle beskrivelserne, alle metadata --
13:12
under a Creative Commons license.
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under en Creative Commons licens.
13:15
Now the Walters Art Museum is a small museum
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1518
Walters Art Museum er et lille museum,
13:16
and it has beautiful manuscripts,
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og det har smukke manuskripter,
13:18
but the data is fantastic.
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2018
men dataene er fantastiske.
13:20
And the result of this
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1783
Resultatet af dette er,
13:22
is that if you do a Google search on images right now
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3018
at hvis du søger på googles billede-søgning nu
13:25
and you type in "Illuminated manuscript Koran" for example,
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3332
og for eksempel skriver "Illuminated manuscript Koran",
13:28
24 of the 28 images you'll find come from my institution.
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4417
vil 24, ud af de 28 billeder du finder, være fra min institution.
13:32
(Applause)
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5550
(Bifald)
13:38
Now, let's think about this for a minute.
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Lad os tænke over dette.
13:43
What's in it for the institution?
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807680
1983
Hvad får institutionen ud af det?
13:45
There are all sorts of things that are in it for the institution.
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2596
Institutionen får en masse ud af det.
13:48
You can talk about the Humanities and that sort of thing,
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2123
Man kan nævne humaniora og den slags,
13:50
but let's talk about selfish things.
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1881
men lad os tale om egennyttige emner.
13:52
Because what's really in it for the institution is this:
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3868
Fordi det, som institutionen i virkeligheden får ud af det, er dette:
13:56
Now why do people go to the Louvre?
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Hvorfor besøger folk Louvre?
13:59
They go to see the Mona Lisa.
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2984
For at se Mona Lisa.
14:02
Why do they go to see the Mona Lisa?
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Hvorfor vil de se Mona Lisa?
14:05
Because they already know what she looks like.
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2382
Fordi de allerede ved, hvordan hun ser ud.
14:07
And they know what she looks like
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Og de ved, hvordan hun ser ud
14:09
because they've seen pictures of her absolutely everywhere.
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fordi de har set billeder af hende alle vegne.
14:14
Now, there is no need
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4449
Der er slet ikke brug
14:18
for these restrictions at all.
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for disse begrænsninger.
14:21
And I think that institutions should stand up
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2087
Jeg synes, at institutioner burde
14:23
and release all their data under unrestricted licenses,
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3134
frigive alle deres data under ubegrænsede licenser,
14:26
and it would be a great benefit to everybody.
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2216
og det ville være til alles fordel.
14:28
Why don't we just let everybody have access to this data
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3166
Hvorfor lader vi ikke bare alle have adgang til disse data
14:31
and curate their own collection
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2336
og lave deres egen samling
14:34
of ancient knowledge and wonderful and beautiful things
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2165
af oldtidens viden og vidunderlige og smukke ting
14:36
and increase the beauty and the cultural significance
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og derved øge skønheden og den kulturelle betydning
14:39
of the Internet.
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af internettet?
14:40
Thank you very much indeed.
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1517
Mange tak.
14:42
(Applause)
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4433
(Bifald)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
William Noel - Curator, rare book scholarWilliam Noel is a curator who believes museums should make their collections free and available on the Internet.
Why you should listen
William Noel is the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum. But for someone who spends the majority of his time analyzing ancient and medieval artifacts, he also embraces social media and stresses its value even for the oldest, most established academic and cultural institutions. Noel believes passionately that institutions should free their digital data.
Since 1999 Noel has spearheaded the conservation of a manuscript known as the Archimedes Palimpsest. The palimpsest is a unique Byzantine prayer book made up of parchments which contain hidden writings from three original previously-unknown texts: treatises written by Archimedes; works by the 4th-century B.C. Attic Orator Hyperides; and 3rd-century commentary on Aristotle’s Categories, by an unknown author. Using a powerful particle accelerator Noel and his team were able to uncover the hidden texts and publish all their images and findings on the Internet, available to anyone for free under a Creative Commons license.
Noel currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where he curates at the Walters, working to ensure that the public has free digital access to his collection.
William Noel | Speaker | TED.com