SMC 42

In the traditional view of European scholarship, palimpsests are parchment manuscripts from Antiquity or the Middle Ages whose original content has been erased, scraped away, or washed off and later overwritten with new content. This removed content is usually the focus of research. The present volume, which brings together eighteen papers prepared for two workshops at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures in Hamburg in 2021 and 2023, takes a broader perspective by going far beyond the borders of classical philology into the much less studied manuscript cultures of the Christian East (Aramaic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian, Slavonic, Syriac), the Islamic world of Asia and Africa (Arabic), and East Asia (Japanese). It thematizes writing supports other than parchment that were suitable for palimpsesting; different practices applied in erasing and overwriting handwritten content and the various reasons for such undertakings; and the different methods that researchers can employ to reveal the content of the removed layers and the results that these methods can yield.

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FrontmatterI

ContentsV

Removed and Rewritten: Palimpsests and Related Phenomena from a Cross-cultural Perspective
1Jost Gippert

Written Sources on the Use of Reagents in the Palimpsests Veronenses XV, XL, and LXII: Towards an Archaeology of Destruction
21Emanuel Zingg

Palimpsest Manuscripts in the National Library of Greece, with a Focus on EBE 192
57Zisis Melissakis

Some Reflections on Selected Leaves of the Palimpsest Manuscript Athos, Konstamonitou 9987
Stefan Alexandru

The Trials and Tribulations of a Palimpsest Reader107
Christa Müller-Kessler

Beyond the Invisible: Some Aspects of Syriac Palimpsests159
Grigory Kessel

A Georgian Palimpsest Folio in an Athonite Greek Manuscript221
Bernard Outtier

An Ancient Armenian Text of the Gospel of John in a Graz Palimpsest: Preliminary Observations235
Erich Renhart

Palimpsests from the Caucasus: Two Case Studies253
Jost Gippert

The Oldest Georgian Witness of the Martyrdom of St Febronia283
Mariam Kamarauli

New Witnesses of the Jerusalem-Rite Lectionary: Georgian Palimpsests Ivir. georg. 47 and Ivir. georg. 59309
Eka Kvirkvelia

Linguistic Divergence in Armenian Bible and Lectionary Palimsests331
Hasmik Sargsyan

Uncovering Lost Armenian Texts: Schøyen Collection MS 575 and the Armenian Translation of John Chrysostom’s Commentary on the Psalms351
Emilio Bonfiglio

A Survey of the Palimpsests among the Slavic Manuscripts of Mount Sinai381
Heinz Miklas

Ethiopic Palimpsests393
Ted Erho

Personal Qur’ans in Early Islam: A Case of Palimpsesting and Training433
Alba Fedeli

Palimpsesting or Paper Reuse in Islamic Manuscripts of West Africa475
Darya Ogorodnikova and Khaoula Trad

Palimpsests on Purpose: Rethinking Intentional Erasure and Layers in Manuscript Culture509
Halle O’Neal

Inpainting with Generative AI: A Significant Step towards Automatically Deciphering Palimpsests535
Hussein Mohammed, Mahdi Jampour, and Jost Gippert

Contributors547

General Index551