A project for the rediscovery and dissemination of Greek palimpsests (11/2001 - 10/2004)

Most manuscript libraries and archives contain palimpsests, which are manuscripts or fragments of reused parchment. For economical reasons older texts were sacrificed by scraping or washing them off, and the material thus regained was covered with new writing. There are some cases where parchment was rewritten twice (resulting in a so-called codex bis rescriptus). The lower layer of writing is often erased to a point where it is hardly, if at all, visible to the human eye. The book culture of the ancient and medieval Greek world counts several hundred preserved palimpsest units.

The European project Rinascimento virtuale (RV) – Digitale Palimpsestforschung. Rediscovering written records of a hidden European cultural heritage, which was coordinated from the University of Hamburg and includes participants from 26 European countries, was aimed at digital research of Greek and Byzantine palimpsests based on the very recent developments in multispectral digital imaging technology. It was supported for a three-year period within the framework of the Programme Culture 2000 of the European Commission at Brussels since the end of 2001. A total of 50 partners (universities, libraries, academies, research centres, foundations) from most of the European countries worked together on the analysis and study of Greek palimpsests, making use of digital imaging technology coupled with computer based elaboration.

The Rinascimento virtuale project comprised four areas of activity:

• the creation of a systematical checklist and select studies of Greek palimpsests extant in Europe
• digitisation, elaboration and electronic archiving of selected palimpsests
• education and training in the various areas of expertise converging in this project
• dissemination and publication of achievements.

On the occasion of numerous project conferences, a summer school and several workshops, research and technologies were presented and discussed.

Results have helped to enhance scholars’ knowledge of ancient and medieval (secular and Christian) Greek texts and their tradition, to promote the use of advanced technology for the study of palimpsested (as well as otherwise damaged) manuscripts and fragments, and to provide new insights on the overall cultural context of manuscript palimpsestation in the Greek and Byzantine world to researchers and to the interested public alike.

Information on the Rinascimento virtuale logo can be found here.

Information on this image of someone creating a palimpsest can be found here.