Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

PALIMPSEST

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 633 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

PALIMPSEST . The See also:

custom of removing See also:writing from the See also:surface of the material on which it had been inscribed, and thus preparing that surface for the reception of another See also:text, has been practised from See also:early times. The See also:term palimpsest (from Gr. raw, again, and haw, I scrape) is used by See also:Catullus, apparently with reference to See also:papyrus; by See also:Cicero, in a passage wherein he is evidently speaking of waxen tablets; and by See also:Plutarch, when he narrates that See also:Plato compared See also:Dionysius to a #tfMov 7raXf,.4, lvrov, in that his See also:tyrant nature, being Suvk7rXuros, showed itself like the imperfectly erased writing of a palimpsest MS. In this passage reference is clearly made to the washing off of writing from papyrus. The word 7raXLs,mo-Tor can only in its first use have been applied to See also:MSS. which were actually scraped or rubbed, and which were, therefore, composed of a material of sufficient strength to See also:bear the See also:process. In the first instance, then, it might be applied to waxen tablets; secondly, to vellum books. There are still to be seen, among the surviving waxen tablets, some which contain traces of an earlier writing under a fresh layer of See also:wax. Papyrus could not be scraped or rubbed; the writing wa& washed from it with the sponge. This, however, could not be so thoroughly done as to leave a perfectly clean surface, and the material was accordingly only used a second See also:time for documents of an ephemeral or See also:common nature. To apply, therefore, the See also:title of palimpsest to a MS. of this substance was not strictly correct; the fact that it was so applied proves that the term was a common expression. Traces of earlier writing are very rarely to be detected in extant papyri. Indeed, the See also:supply of that material must have been so abundant that it was hardly necessary to go to the trouble of preparing a papyrus, already used, for a second writing.

In the early See also:

period of palimpsests, vellum MSS. were no doubt also washed rather than scraped. The See also:original surface of the material, at all events, was not so thoroughly defaced as was afterwards the See also:case. In course of time, by atmospheric See also:action or other chemical causes, the original writing would to some extent reappear; and it is thus that so many of the See also:capital and uncial palimpsests have been successfully deciphered. In the later See also:middle ages the surface of the vellum was scraped away and the writing with it. The See also:reading of the later examples is therefore very difficult or altogether impossible. Besides actual rasure, various recipes for effacing the writing have been found,. such as to soften the surface with See also:milk and See also:meal, and then to rub with See also:pumice. In the case of such a process being used, See also:total obliteration must almost inevitably have been the result. To intensify the traces of the original writing, when such exist, various chemical reagents have been tried with more or less success. The old method of smearing the vellum with See also:tincture of See also:gall restored the writing, but did irreparable damage by blackening the surface, and, as the stain See also:grew darker in course of time, by rendering the text altogether illegible. Of See also:modern reagents the most harmless appears to be hydrosulphate of See also:ammonia; but this also must be used with caution. The See also:primary cause of the destruction of vellum MSS. by wilful obliteration was, it need hardly be said, the dearth of material. In the case of See also:Greek MSS., so See also:great was the See also:consumption of old codices for the See also:sake of the material, that a synodal See also:decree of the See also:year 691 forbade the destruction of MSS. of the Scriptures or the See also:church fathers—imperfect or injured volumes excepted.

The decline of the vellum See also:

trade also on the introduction of See also:paper caused a scarcity which was only to be made See also:good by recourse to material already once used. Vast destruction of the broad quartos of the early centuries of our era took See also:place in the period which followed the fall of the See also:Roman See also:Empire. The most valuable Latin palimpsests are accordingly found in the volumes which were remade from the 7th to the 9th centuries, a period during which the large volumes referred to must have been still fairly numerous. See also:Late Latin palimpsests rarely yield anything of value. It has been remarked that no entire See also:work has been found in any instance in the original text of a palimpsest, but that portions of many See also:works have been taken to make up a single See also:volume. These facts prove that See also:scribes were indis-criminate in supplying themselves with material from any old volumes that happened to be at See also:hand. . An enumeration of the different palimpsests of value is 11ot here possible (see See also:Wattenbach, Schriftwesen, 3rd ed., pp. 299–317) ; but a few may be mentioned of which facsimiles are accessible. The MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale, See also:Paris, known as the Codex Ephraemi, containing portions of the Old and New Testaments in Greek, attributed to the 5th See also:century, is covered with works of Ephraem Syrus in a hand of the 12th century (ed. See also:Tischendorf, 1843, 1845). Among the See also:Syriac MSS. obtained from the Nitrian See also:desert in See also:Egypt, and now deposited in the See also:British Museum, some important Greek texts have been recovered. A volume containing a work of See also:Severus of See also:Antioch of the beginning of the 9th century is written on palimpsest leaves taken from MSS. of the Iliad of See also:Homer and the See also:Gospel of St See also:Luke, both of the 6th century (See also:Cat.

Anc. MSS. vol. i., pls. 9, 10), and the Elements of See also:

Euclid of the 7th or 8th century. To the same collection belongs the See also:double palimpsest, in which a text of St See also:John See also:Chrysostom, in Syriac, of the 9th or loth century, covers a Latin grammatical See also:treatise in a cursive hand of the 6th century, which in its turn has displaced the Latin See also:annals of the historian Granius See also:Licinianus, of the 5th century (Cat. Anc. MSS. ii., pls. 1, 2). Among Latin palimpsests also may be noticed those which have been reproduced in the Exempla of Zangemeister and Wattenbach. These are—the Ambrosian See also:Plautus, in rustic capitals, of the 4th or 5th century, re-written with portions of the See also:Bible in the 9th century (pl. 6) ; the Cicero De republica of the Vatican, in See also:uncials, of the 4th century, covered by St See also:Augustine on the See also:Psalms, of the 7th century (pl. 17; See also:Pal. See also:Soc., pl.

16o) ; the Codex Theodosianus of See also:

Turin, of the 5th or 6th century (pl. 25); the See also:Fasti Consulares of See also:Verona, of A.D. 486 (pl. 29) ; and the Arian fragment of the Vatican, of the 5th century (pl. 31). Most of these originally belonged to the monastery of See also:Bobbio, a fact which gives some indication of the great See also:literary See also:wealth of that See also:house. By using skill and See also:judgment, with a favouring See also:light, See also:photography may be often made a useful See also:agent in the decipherment of obscure palimpsest texts. (E. M.

End of Article: PALIMPSEST

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
PALIKAO, CHARLES GUILLAUME MARIE APPOLLINAIRE ANTOI... 		[next]
PALINDROME (Gr. 7raXty, again, and Spbµos, a cours...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries