Marshall Clagett, 89; Expert on Medieval Science, Archimedes

Marshall Clagett, 89, a historian who studied medieval science and the work of mathematician Archimedes, died Oct. 21, according to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., where he worked for the last four decades. He lived in Princeton.

Clagett wrote extensively about Archimedes, publishing a five-volume work, “Archimedes in the Middle Ages,” over a period of 20 years. In his most recent work, about science in ancient Egypt, he used computers to interpret hieroglyphics. At the time of his death, he was completing the fourth and final volume of “Ancient Egyptian Science.”

Clagett became a faculty member at the institute in 1964, retiring in 1986.

A native of Washington, D.C., he studied at Caltech, George Washington University and Columbia University. He taught at Columbia and the University of Wisconsin before joining the institute, which is not affiliated with Princeton University.