William Noel (archivist)

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William Noel (August 1, 1965 - April 29, 2024) was a British archivist. He was an authority on medieval manuscripts. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Noel was born in the United Kingdom. [2] He received a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Cambridge. [3] [2]

Career

After receiving his PhD, Noel became the curator of rare books at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. At the museum, he led a project to digitize medieval manuscripts and make them freely available to the public. [3]

Noel founded and directed the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at UPenn. There he developed OPenn, an online portal for collections of various departments at Penn. [4]

Noel led the Archimedes Palimpsest Project using multispectral and x‑ray imaging to recover erased text from the lost works of Archimedes including The Method and Stomachion. [5]

In 2007, Noel co-authored with Reviel Netz The Archimedes Codex, an exploration of the history of the discovery of the Archimedes Palimpsest and their role in deciphering it. [6] [7]

In 2020, Noel was appointed the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections at Princeton University. [4]

Awards and honors

The Archimedes Codex was awarded the Neumann Prize of the British Society for the History of Mathematics. [8]

In 2013, Noel was named a White House Open Science Champion of Change. [9]

Personal life

Noel died on April 29, 2024, in Edinburgh after being struck by a van. [4]

References

  1. ↑ "William Noel, medieval manuscript expert who led the deciphering of lost works by Archimedes – obituary". The Telegraph. 14 May 2024.
  2. 1 2 "In Memoriam: William Noel, the John T. Maltsberger III '55 Associate University Librarian for Special Collections | Princeton University Library". library.princeton.edu.
  3. 1 2 "Princeton faculty member dies in traffic accident". The Princetonian.
  4. 1 2 3 "William Noel, medieval expert and librarian who championed digital data access, has died".
  5. ↑ "Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes". The Walters Art Museum. October 16, 2011.
  6. ↑ "THE ARCHIMEDES CODEX | Kirkus Reviews" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
  7. ↑ "The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book Is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity's Greatest Scientist by Reviel Netz, William Noel". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2025-07-05.
  8. ↑ "Neumann Prize | The British Society for the History of Mathematics". www.bshm.ac.uk.
  9. ↑ "NEH Grantees Honored as White House Open Science Champions of Change". National Endowment for the Humanities.
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