Palimpsest

A palimpsest is a manuscript page, scroll, or book that has been written on, scraped off, and used again. The word palimpsest comes from two Greek roots (palin + psEn) meaning "scraped again." Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be reused, and a passing use of the rather bookish term "palimpsest" by Cicero seems to refer to this practice.

Modern decipherment

Scholars of the 19th century used chemical means to read palimpsests that were sometimes very destructive, using tincture of gall or later, ammonium hydrosulfate. Modern methods using ultraviolet and photography are more subtle. Superposed photographs exposed in various light spectra, a technique called "multispectral filming," can bring up the contrast of faded ink against parchment that is too indistinct to be read by eye in normal light. Innovative Digitized images have come to aid scholars in deciphering unreadable palimpsests.

Related Topics:
19th century - Tincture - Gall - Ultraviolet - Digitized image

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