Palimpsest
Encyclopedia
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
page from a scroll
Scroll (parchment)
A scroll is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper which has been written, drawn or painted upon for the purpose of transmitting information or using as a decoration.-Structure:...
or book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsestos, “scratched or scraped again”) originally compounded from πάλιν (palin, “again”) and ψάω (psao, “I scrape”) literally meaning “scraped clean and used again”. Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
wrote on wax-coated tablets
Wax tablet
A wax tablet is a tablet made of wood and covered with a layer of wax, often linked loosely to a cover tablet, as a "double-leaved" diptych. It was used as a reusable and portable writing surface in Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages...
that could be smoothed and reused, and a passing use of the term "palimpsest" by Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
seems to refer to this practice.
The term has come to be used in similar context in a variety of disciplines, notably architectural archaeology.
Development
Parchment
Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. Its most common use was as a material for writing on, for documents, notes, or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned; therefore, it is very...
, prepared from animal hides, is far more durable than paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
or papyrus
Papyrus
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
, most palimpsests known to modern scholars are parchment, which rose in popularity in western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
after the 6th century. Also, where papyrus was in common use, reuse of writing media was less common because papyrus was cheaper and more expendable than costly parchment. But some papyrus palimpsests do survive, and Romans referred to this custom of washing papyrus, although the reed from which it was made did not grow in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
The writing was washed from parchment or vellum
Vellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
using milk and oat bran. With the passing of time, the faint remains of the former writing would reappear enough so that scholars can discern the text (called the scriptio inferior, the "underwriting") and decipher it. In the later Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
the surface of the vellum was usually scraped away with powdered pumice
Pumice
Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. It can be formed when lava and water are mixed. This unusual formation is due to the simultaneous actions of rapid...
, irretrievably losing the writing, hence the most valuable palimpsests are those that were overwritten in the early Middle Ages.
Medieval codices
Codex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
are constructed in "gathers" which are folded (compare "folio", "leaf, page" ablative case
Ablative case
In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...
of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
folium), then stacked together like a newspaper and sewn together at the fold. Prepared parchment sheets retained their original central fold, so each was ordinarily cut in half, making a quarto
Quarto
Quarto could refer to:* Quarto, a size or format of a book in which four leaves of a book are created from a standard size sheet of paper* For specific information about quarto texts of William Shakespeare's works, see:...
volume of the original folio, with the overwritten text running perpendicular to the effaced text.
Modern decipherment
Faint legible remains were read by eye before 20th-century techniques helped make lost texts readable. Scholars of the 19th century used chemical means to read palimpsests that were sometimes very destructive, using tinctureTincture
A tincture is an alcoholic extract or solution of a non-volatile substance . To qualify as a tincture, the alcoholic extract is to have an ethanol percentage of at least 40-60%...
of gall
Gall
Galls or cecidia are outgrowths on the surface of lifeforms caused by invasion by other lifeforms, such as parasites or bacterial infection. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites...
or later, ammonium bisulfate
Ammonium bisulfate
Ammonium bisulfate, also known as ammonium hydrogen sulfate, is a white, crystalline solid when it is completely pure, with formula HSO4. It is commonly collected as a byproduct of flue gas desulfurization, formed by partial neutralization of sulfuric acid aerosols by gaseous ammonia, NH3. ...
. Modern methods of reading palimpsests using ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
light and photography are less damaging. Innovative digitized images aid scholars in deciphering unreadable palimpsests. Superexposed photographs exposed in various light spectra, a technique called "multispectral filming," can increase the contrast of faded ink on parchment that is too indistinct to be read by eye in normal light. Multispectral imaging, undertaken by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
and Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, retrieved some four-fifths of the text of the Archimedes Palimpsest
Archimedes Palimpsest
The Archimedes Palimpsest is a palimpsest on parchment in the form of a codex. It originally was a copy of an otherwise unknown work of the ancient mathematician, physicist, and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse and other authors, which was overwritten with a religious text.Archimedes lived in the...
. The Walters Art Museum
Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland's Mount Vernon neighborhood, is a public art museum founded in 1934. The museum's collection was amassed substantially by two men, William Thompson Walters , who began serious collecting when he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the American...
where the palimpsest is now conserved, the project has focused on experimental techniques to retrieve the remaining fifth. One of the most successful of these techniques has proved to be X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
fluorescence
Fluorescence
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation of a different wavelength. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore lower energy, than the absorbed radiation...
imaging, through which the iron in the ink is revealed, even under a forged overpainting.
As a form of destruction
A number of ancient works have survived only as palimpsests. Vellum manuscripts were over-written on purpose mostly due to the dearth or cost of the material. In the case of Greek manuscripts, the consumption of old codicesCodex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
for the sake of the material was so great that a synodal decree of the year 691 forbade the destruction of manuscripts of the Scriptures or the church fathers, except for imperfect or injured volumes. Such a decree put added pressure on retrieving the vellum on which secular manuscripts were written. The decline of the vellum trade with the introduction of paper exacerbated the scarcity, increasing pressure to reuse material.
Cultural considerations also motivated the creation of palimpsests. The demand for new texts might outstrip the availability of parchment in some centers, yet the existence of cleaned parchment that was never overwritten suggests that there was also a spiritual motivation, to sanctify pagan text by overlaying it with the word of God, somewhat as pagan sites were overlaid with Christian churches to hallow pagan ground. Or the pagan texts may have merely appeared irrelevant. Texts most susceptible to being overwritten included obsolete legal and liturgical ones, sometimes of intense interest to the historian. Early Latin translations of Scripture were rendered obsolete by Jerome's Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
. Texts might be in foreign languages or written in unfamiliar scripts that had become illegible over time. The codices themselves might be already damaged or incomplete. Heretical
Christian heresy
Christian heresy refers to non-orthodox practices and beliefs that were deemed to be heretical by one or more of the Christian churches. In Western Christianity, the term "heresy" most commonly refers to those beliefs which were declared to be anathema by the Catholic Church prior to the schism of...
texts were dangerous to harbor: there were compelling political and religious reasons to destroy texts viewed as heresy, and to reuse the media was less wasteful than simply to burn the books.
Vast destruction of the broad quarto
Quarto
Quarto could refer to:* Quarto, a size or format of a book in which four leaves of a book are created from a standard size sheet of paper* For specific information about quarto texts of William Shakespeare's works, see:...
s of the early centuries of our era took place in the period which followed the fall of the Roman Empire, but palimpsests were also created as new texts were required during the Carolingian renaissance
Carolingian Renaissance
In the history of ideas the Carolingian Renaissance stands out as a period of intellectual and cultural revival in Europe occurring from the late eighth century, in the generation of Alcuin, to the 9th century, and the generation of Heiric of Auxerre, with the peak of the activities coordinated...
. The most valuable Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
palimpsests are found in the codices which were remade from the early large folios in the 7th to the 9th centuries. It has been noticed that no entire work is generally found in any instance in the original text of a palimpsest, but that portions of many works have been taken to make up a single volume. An exception is the Archimedes palimpsest (see below). On the whole, Early Medieval scribes were indiscriminate in supplying themselves with material from any old volumes that happened to be at hand.
Famous examples
- The best-known palimpsest in the legal world was discovered in 1816 by Niebuhr and Savigny in the library of Verona cathedral. Underneath letters by St. Jerome and Gennadius was the almost complete text of The Institutes of Gaius, probably the first student's textbook on Roman law.
- The Codex Ephraemi RescriptusCodex Ephraemi RescriptusCodex Ephraemi Rescriptus is an early 5th century Greek manuscript of the Bible, the last in the group of the four great uncial manuscripts...
, Bibliothèque Nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
, Paris: portions of the Old and New Testaments in Greek, attributed to the 5th century, are covered with works of Ephraem the SyrianEphrem the SyrianEphrem the Syrian was a Syriac and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christians throughout the world, and especially in the Syriac Orthodox Church, as a saint.Ephrem wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons in verse, as well as...
in a hand of the 12th century - Among the Syriac manuscripts obtained from the Nitrian desert in Egypt, British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, London: important Greek texts, Add. Ms. 17212British Library, Add. 17212British Library, Add. 17212 is a double palimpsest, with three successive writings: a Syriac translation of St. Chrysostom's Homilies of the 9th/10th century covers a Latin grammatical treatise from the 6th century, written in cursive, which in turn covers the Annales of Roman historian Granius...
with Syriac translation of St. Chrysostom's Homilies, of the 9th/10th century, covers a Latin grammatical treatise from the 6th century. - Codex NitriensisCodex NitriensisCodex Nitriensis designated by R or 027 , ε 22 , is a 6th century Greek New Testament codex containing the Gospel of Luke, in a fragmentary condition. It is a two column manuscript in majuscules , measuring .- Description :The text is written in two columns per page, 25 lines per page, in large...
, a volume containing a work of Severus of AntiochSeverus of AntiochSeverus, Patriarch of Antioch , born approximately 465 in Sozopolis in Pisidia, was by birth and education a pagan, who was baptized in the "precinct of the divine martyr Leontius" at Tripoli, Lebanon.- Life :...
of the beginning of the 9th century is written on palimpsest leaves taken from 6th century manuscripts of the IliadIliadThe Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
and the Gospel of St LukeGospel of LukeThe Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
, both of the 6th century, and the Euclid's ElementsEuclid's ElementsEuclid's Elements is a mathematical and geometric treatise consisting of 13 books written by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria c. 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulates , propositions , and mathematical proofs of the propositions...
of the seventh or 8th century, British Museum - A double palimpsest, in which a text of St John ChrysostomJohn ChrysostomJohn Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...
, in SyriacSyriac languageSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
, of the ninth or 10th century, covers a Latin grammatical treatise in a cursive hand of the 6th century, which in its turn covers the Latin annals of the historian Granius LicinianusGranius LicinianusGranius Licinianus was a Roman author of historical and encyclopedic works that survive only in fragments. He most likely lived at the time of Hadrian.-History:...
, of the 5th century, British Museum. - The only known hyper-palimpsest: the Novgorod CodexNovgorod CodexThe Novgorod Codex is the oldest book of Rus’, unearthed on July 13, 2000 in Novgorod. It is a palimpsest consisting of three bound wooden tablets containing four pages filled with wax, on which its former owner wrote down dozens, probably hundreds of texts during two or three decades, each time...
, where potentially hundreds of texts have left their traces on the wooden back wall of a wax tablet - The Ambrosian PlautusPlautusTitus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
, in rustic capitals, of the fourth or 5th century, re-written with portions of the BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in the 9th century, Ambrosian Library - CiceroCiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, De republica in uncialUncialUncial is a majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters are written in either Greek, Latin, or Gothic.-Development:...
s, of the 4th century, covered by St AugustineAugustine of HippoAugustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
on the PsalmsPsalmsThe Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
, of the 7th century, Vatican LibraryVatican LibraryThe Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from... - Codex TheodosianusCodex TheodosianusThe Codex Theodosianus was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Theodosius II in 429 and the compilation was published in the eastern half of the Roman Empire in 438...
of TurinTurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, of the 5th or 6th century - the Fasti Consulares of VeronaVeronaVerona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, of 486 - the Arian fragmentArian fragmentThe so-called Arian fragment of the Vatican Library, MS 5750, found at the monastic library at Bobbio, is part of a series of fragmented fifth-century palimpsest of fifth-century Arian texts, erased and overwritten in Latin in the ninth century....
of the VaticanVatican LibraryThe Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
, of the 5th century - the letters of Cornelius Fronto, overwritten by the Acts of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of ChalcedonThe Council of Chalcedon was a church council held from 8 October to 1 November, 451 AD, at Chalcedon , on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The council marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates that led to the separation of the church of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th...
- the Archimedes PalimpsestArchimedes PalimpsestThe Archimedes Palimpsest is a palimpsest on parchment in the form of a codex. It originally was a copy of an otherwise unknown work of the ancient mathematician, physicist, and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse and other authors, which was overwritten with a religious text.Archimedes lived in the...
, a work of the great Syracusan mathematician copied onto parchment in the 10th century and overwritten by a liturgical text in the 12th century - Sinaitic PalimpsestSinaitic PalimpsestThe Syriac Sinaitic , known also as the Sinaitic Palimpsest, of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai is a late 4th century manuscript of 358 pages, containing a translation of the four canonical gospels of the New Testament into Syriac, which have been overwritten by a vita of female saints...
, the oldest Syriac copy of the gospels, from the 4th century - the unique copy of a Greek grammatical text composed by HerodianAelius HerodianusAelius Herodianus or Herodian was one of the most celebrated grammarians of Greco-Roman antiquity. He is usually known as Herodian except when there is a danger of confusion with the historian also named Herodian....
for the emperor Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century, preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna - Codex ZacynthiusCodex ZacynthiusCodex Zacynthius, designated by siglum Ξ or 040 , A1 , is a Greek New Testament codex, dated paleographically to the 6th century. Formerly it was dated to the 8th century . It is a palimpsest, a former text had been washed off its vellum pages...
– Greek palimpsest fragments of the gospel of Saint Luke, obtained in the island of Zante, by General Colin MacaulayColin MacaulayColin Macaulay , general, slavery abolitionist and campaigner. Macaulay was a son of the Rev. John Macaulay , minister in the Church of Scotland, grandson of Dòmhnall Cam. and his mother was Margaret Campbell. He had two brothers: Rev...
, deciphered, transcribed and edited by TregellesSamuel Prideaux TregellesSamuel Prideaux Tregelles was an English biblical scholar, textual critic, and theologian.- Life :Tregelles was born at Wodehouse Place, Falmouth, of Quaker parents, but he himself for many years was in communion with the Plymouth Brethren and then later in life became a Presbyterian... - Codex DublinensisCodex DublinensisCodex Dublinensis designated by Z or 035 , ε 26 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels, dated palaeographically to the 6th century. The manuscript is lacunose.- Description :...
(Codex Z) of St. Matthew's Gospel, at Trinity College, DublinTrinity College, DublinTrinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, also deciphered by Tregelles - Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis, with text of Origins of IsidoreIsidore of SevilleSaint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
, partly palimpsest, with texts of earlier codices Guelferbytanus ACodex Guelferbytanus ACodex Guelferbytanus A designated by Pe or 024 , ε 33 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels, dated palaeographically to the 6th century. The manuscript is very lacunose.- Description :...
, Guelferbytanus BCodex Guelferbytanus BCodex Guelferbytanus B designated by Q or 026 , ε 4 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels, dated palaeographically to the 5th century.It is a palimpsest.- Contents :Gospel of Luke...
, Codex CarolinusCodex CarolinusCodex Carolinus is a Gothic-Latin diglot uncial manuscript of the New Testament on parchment, dated to the 6th or 7th century. The Gothic text is designated by siglum Car, the Latin text is designated by siglum gue or by 79 , it represents the Old Latin translation of the New Testament...
, and several other texts Greek and Latin;
Other palimpsests (New Testament)
To the present day survived about sixty palimpsest manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. Uncial codices:
Porphyrianus
Codex Porphyrianus
Codex Porphyrianus designated by Papr or 025 , α 3 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Acts of Apostles, Pauline epistles, and General epistles, with some lacunae, dated paleographically to the 9th century. It is one of a few uncial manuscripts that include the Book of Revelation.It was...
, Vaticanus 2061
Codex Vaticanus 2061
Codex Vaticanus Graecus 2061, usually known as Uncial 048 , α1 , is a Greek uncial manuscript on parchment. It contains some parts of the New Testament, homilies of several authors, and Strabo's Geographica...
(double palimpsest), Uncial 064
Uncial 064
Uncial 064 designated by , ε 10 , is a Greek uncial codex of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Formerly it was labelled by Θe.Palimpsest.- Description :...
, 065
Uncial 065
Uncial 065 , ε 1 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 066
Uncial 066
Uncial 066 , α 1000 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 067
Uncial 067
Uncial 067 , ε 2 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 068
Uncial 068
Uncial 068 , ε 3 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 5th century. Tischendorf designated it by Ib, Scrivener by Nb.It has some marginalia.- Description :...
(double palimpsest), 072
Uncial 072
Uncial 072 , ε 011 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 5th/6th century.- Description :...
, 078
Uncial 078
Uncial 078 , ε 15 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 6th century. It is a palimpsest.- Description :...
, 079
Uncial 079
Uncial 079 , ε 16 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 086
Uncial 086
Uncial 086 , ε 35 , is a Greek — Coptic diglot, uncial codex of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 088
Uncial 088
Uncial 088 , α 1021 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 5th or 6th century.- Description :...
, 093
Uncial 093
Uncial 093 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 6th century. Formerly it was designated by siglum ל.- Description :...
, 094
Uncial 094
Uncial 094 , ε 016 ; is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 096
Uncial 096
Uncial 096 , α 1004 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 7th century.- Descritpion :...
, 097
Uncial 097
Uncial 097 , α 1003 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 7th century.- Description :...
, 098
Uncial 098
Uncial 098 , α 1025 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 7th century. It is also named Codex Cryptoferratensis .- Description :...
, 0103
Uncial 0103
Uncial 0103 , ε 43 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament. It is dated paleographically to the 7th century.- Description :...
, 0104
Uncial 0104
Uncial 0104 , ε 44 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament. It is dated paleographically to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 0116
Uncial 0116
Uncial 0116 , ε 58 ; is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 8th century...
, 0120
Uncial 0120
Uncial 0120 , α 1005 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 9th century.- Description :...
, 0130, 0132
Uncial 0132
Uncial 0132 , ε 82 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 9th century. Formerly it was labelled by Wf.- Description :...
, 0133
Uncial 0133
Uncial 0133 , ε 83 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 9th century. Formerly it was labelled by Wg.- Description :...
, 0135
Uncial 0135
Uncial 0135 , ε 85 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 9th century.- Description :...
, 0208
Uncial 0208
Uncial 0208 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 6th century.- Description :...
, 0209
Uncial 0209
Uncial 0209 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 7th century.- Description :...
.
Lectionaries:
Lectionary 226
Lectionary 226
Lectionary 226, designated by siglum ℓ 226 is a Greek manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 14th century...
, ℓ 1637
Lectionary 1637
Lectionary 1637, or ℓ 1637 in the Gregory-Aland numbering,is a Greek manuscript of the New Testament on parchment leaves, dated paleographically to the 9th century.- Description :...
.
Extended usages
The word palimpsest also refers to a plaque which has been turned around and engraved on what was originally the back.In planetary astronomy
Planetary science
Planetary science is the scientific study of planets , moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,...
, ancient crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
s on icy moon
Icy moon
Icy moons are believed to be a common class of natural satellites or planetoids with surfaces composed mostly of ice. An icy moon may harbor an ocean underneath the surface, and possibly include a rocky core of silicate or metallic rocks. It is thought that they may be composed of ice II...
s of the outer Solar System whose relief has mostly disappeared, leaving behind only an albedo feature or a trace of a rim, are also known as palimpsests
Palimpsest (planetary astronomy)
A palimpsest, in planetary astronomy, is an ancient crater on an icy moon of the outer Solar System whose relief has disappeared due to creep of the icy surface or subsequent cryovolcanic outpourings, leaving a circular albedo feature, perhaps with a "ghost" of a rim...
or ghost craters.
In medicine it is used to describe an episode of acute anterograde amnesia
Anterograde amnesia
Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact. This is in contrast to retrograde amnesia, where memories...
without loss of consciousness, brought on by the ingestion of alcohol or other substances: 'alcoholic palimpsest'.
The term is used in forensic science or forensic engineering
Forensic engineering
Forensic engineering is the investigation of materials, products, structures or components that fail or do not operate or function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property. The consequences of failure are dealt with by the law of product liability. The field also deals with...
to describe objects placed over one another to establish the sequence of events at an accident or crime scene
Crime scene
A crime scene is a location where an illegal act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists....
.
Several historians are beginning to use the term as a description of the way people experience times, that is, as a layering of present experiences over faded pasts.
Palimpsest is beginning to be used by glaciologists
Glaciology
Glaciology Glaciology Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal): glace, "ice"; or Latin: glacies, "frost, ice"; and Greek: λόγος, logos, "speech" lit...
to describe contradicting glacial flow indicators, usually consisting of smaller indicators (i.e., striae) overprinted upon larger features (i.e., stoss and lee topography, drumlins, etc.).
During the opening credits of the film version of The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose (film)
The Name of the Rose is a 1986 film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on the book of the same name by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery is the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Christian Slater is his apprentice Adso of Melk, who are called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval...
, it is described as "A palimpsest of the novel by Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
".
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
titled his 1995 memoir Palimpsest.
The contemporary British composer George Benjamin
George Benjamin (composer)
George William John Benjamin, CBE is a British composer of classical music. He is also a conductor, pianist and teacher....
has written a pair of orchestral pieces titled Palimpsest I and Palimpsest II.
The term is also used to describe augmented realities brought about by the melding of layers of material places and their virtual representations.
Decipherment in architecture
Architects imply palimpsest as a ghost—an image of what once was. In the built environment, this occurs somewhat often. Whenever spaces are shuffled, rebuilt, or remodeled, shadowShadow
A shadow is an area where direct light from a light source cannot reach due to obstruction by an object. It occupies all of the space behind an opaque object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, or reverse projection of the object blocking the...
s remain. Tarred rooflines remain on the sides of a building long after the neighboring structure has been demolished; removed stairs leave a mark where the painted wall surface stopped. Dust lines remain from a relocated appliance. Ancient ruins speak volumes of their former wholeness. Palimpsests can inform us, archaeologically, of the realities of the built past.
Thus architects, archaeologists and design historians sometimes use the word to describe the accumulated iterations of a design or a site, whether in literal layers of archaeological remains, or by the figurative accumulation and reinforcement of design ideas over time. An excellent example of this can be seen at The Tower of London, where construction began in the 11th century, and the site continues to develop to this day.
Archaeologists in particular use the term to denote a record of material remains that is suspected of having formed during an extended period but that cannot be resolved in such a way that temporally discrete traces can be recognized as such.
Egyptologists use the word for texts and representations inscribed in stone that have been scraped away, either completely or partially, often with a plaster filling being applied, and then a new inscription carved on top.
Codex Nitriensis
External links
- OPIB Virtual Renaissance Network activities in digitizing European palimpsests
- Brief note on economic and cultural considerations in production of palimpsests
- Producing the Archimedes Palimpsest
- PBS NOVA: "The Archimedes Palimpsest" Click on "What is a Palimpsest?"
- Rinascimento virtuale a project for the census, description, study and digital reproduction of Greek palimpsests
- Ángel Escobar, El palimpsesto grecolatino como fenómeno librario y textual, Zaragoza 2006
- Giovanni Pastore – THE DISCOVERY OF ARCHIMEDES' ORRERY