Early Medieval Palimpsests
Edited by G Declercq
Palimpsests are texts from which the primary text has been effaced to make room for fresh writing. The practice was particularly important in the early Middle Ages, when numerous, often precious, books were subjected to this treatment. As a result, many ancient texts lay hidden in European libraries for centuries. Ever since the first palimpsests were discovered in the seventeenth century, scholars have been fascinated by the possibility of discovering hitherto unknown texts. For a long time, the lower script of palimpsests could only be brought back to the light of day through the use of chemical reagents that proved very detrimental to the manuscripts. The great advance away from these destructive techniques came at the beginning of the twentieth century with the application of ultra-violet photography. Today, striking advances in this field are again being made with the development of digital imaging. The contributions in this volume focus mainly on the cultural evidence offered by palimpsests from the early Middle Ages. Some contributors have examined particular manuscripts in great detail (the London palimpsest of Jerome’s Chronicle or the Munich palimpsest codex from Benediktbeuern); others have looked at specific types of texts that have suffered deletion in this way (liturgical palimpsests, Carolingian letters). The volume also contains a handlist of all known palimpsested manuscripts in Beneventan script.
- Edited by G Declercq
Other Titles in this Series
‘Change’ in Medieval and Renaissance Scripts and Manuscripts
Proceedings of the 19th Colloquium of the Comite international de paleographie latine (Berlin, 16-18 September, 2015)
Volume 50
The Antiquarian Book-trade in Switzerland
Sir Thomas Phillipps's Acquisitions in the 1820s and their Later Dispersal
Volume 69
Au-dela du visible
Relations entre juifs et chretiens dissimulees dans des manuscrits hebreux enlumines
Volume 39
Uses and Reuses of Medieval Manuscript Books / Usi e riusi del libro manoscritto nel Medio
Southern Italy. Latin Manuscripts / Italia meridionale. Manoscritti latini
Volume 71
Comment le Livre s’est fait livre. La fabrication des manuscrits bibliques (IVe-XVe siecle)
Bilan, resultats, perspectives de recherche
Volume 40
The Rise of Vernacular Writing. The Palaeographical Perspective
Proceedings of the 21st Colloquium of the Comité international de paléographie latine. Firenze (1921 February 2020)
Volume 70
Scribes and the Presentation of Texts (from Antiquity to c. 1550)
Proceedings of the 20th Colloquium of the Comite international de paleographie latine
Volume 65
Medieval Autograph Manuscripts
Proceedings of the XVIIth Colloquium of the Comite International de Paleographie Latine, held in Ljubljana, 7-10 September 2010
Volume 36
Les folios introductifs de l’Antiphonaire de Leon (Archivo de la Catedral de Leon, ms. 8, fol. 1-27)
Etude et edition
Volume 66
Le gout de la bibliophilie nationale
La collection de livres rares et precieux des ducs d'Arenberg a Bruxelles, XIXe-XXe siecles
Volume 61
Un temoin de la production du livre universitaire dans la France du XIIIe siecle
la collection des Decretales de Gregoire IX
Volume 35
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