Census and study

This heuristic activity of collecting data on palimpsests was the basis of the whole project. A systematic checklist of all Greek palimpsests found in the numerous ancient European libraries and also in the relevant Near Eastern and North American libraries will be published in the near future. A thorough census of the Greek palimpsests in participating libraries resulted in more detailed descriptions of these manuscripts.

The remains of older Greek manuscripts evident from the lower layers of writing on the reused parchment were reviewed and classified according to their content, their dating, their palaeographical and codicological aspects, and to the recension of the transmitted texts. Scholars specialised in the tradition of particular authors were involved. Book makers’ techniques and methods for palimpsestation were determined. The census provided a basis for further scientific studies that deal with the socio-cultural, economic and literary backgrounds for the removal of older texts and with the geographical centres and times of its occurrence. This made an important area of historical recycling accessible to both specialists in any of these numerous fields and to the interested public at large.

For the systemisation of this data and its transfer to a digital archive in Florence, the software MANUS was provided by the Direzione Generale per i beni librari e gli istituti culturali of the Italian Ministry of Culture; it had been customised to allow for the special needs of palimpsest descriptions (cf. the descriptions of palimpsests from selected Italian libraries).