Digitisation, elaboration, archiving

Approximately one tenth of the total number of extant Greek palimpsests were chosen for partial of full digitisation. Project partners used several systems for the digitisation according to the specific situation of a manuscript or library.

Besides regular commercial grade digitisation systems combined with specific filters, special systems for the multispectral digitisation of manuscripts aquired by some of the project partners were used as well, and specialised companies have been asked to provide digitisation using yet more sophisticated equipment on a per-case basis (Forth Photonics and Fotoscientifica).

The results of the digitisation were archived. Some data is available on the internet with reduced-scale elaborated images. Individual partners are in the process of making their results available together with additional descriptive data on codicological features and content of the manuscripts worked upon. E.g., high resolution images along with manuscript descriptions and textual analysis will successively be made available of the digitisations carried out by the Hamburg team through the Teuchos centre.

Some specific papers on technical issues (cf. our full list of project-related publications)  include:

D. Deckers – J. Grusková, Zum Einsatz verschiedener digitaler Verfahren in der Palimpsestforschung, in: The legacy of Bernard de Montfaucon: Three Hundred Years of Studies on Greek Handwriting. Proceedings of the Seventh International Colloquium of Greek Palaeography (Madrid – Salamanca, 15–20 September 2008). Edited by A. B. García and I. Pérez Martín, with the assistance of J. Signes Codoñer (Bibliologia 31). Turnhout 2010 (forthcoming).

Ch. Faraggiana di Sarzana, Leggere manoscritti nell’era digitale: nuove prospettive e vecchi problemi, in: From Manuscript to Digital Text. Problems of interpretation and markup. Proceeding of the Colloquium (Bologna, June 12th 2003). Edited by F. Citti and T. Del Vecchio (Papers on Grammar IX/3). Roma 2007, 35–60.

Ch. Faraggiana di Sarzana, La fotografia applicata a manoscritti greci di difficile lettura: origini ed evoluzione di uno strumento di ricerca e i principi che ne regolano l’uso, in: El palimpsesto grecolatino (2002/2006) 65-80.

D. Deckers, Neue Techniken für alte Bücher I. Die eingesetzten Digitalsysteme des Projektes „Rinascimento Virtuale“. Biblos 53/1 (2004) 25–29.