Register for a CSMC workshop
Removed and Rewritten
Palimpsests and Related Phenomena from a Cross-Cultural Perspective II
When: Monday, 10 July 2023, 9:30 am – Tuesday, 11 July 2023, 5:45 pm CEST
Where: Warburgstraße 26, 20354 Hamburg, Room 0001 (Pavilion)
The phenomenon known as palimpsesting is one of the most radical ways in which a manuscript can be transformed. It not only implies the erasure of a part or all of a manuscript’s contents but may even result in its complete disintegration. Instead of ceasing to exist, however, the dismembered parts often find their way into other manuscripts, hence establishing a mostly hidden and fortuitous connection between two or even more written artefacts.
In recent years, the development of new technologies has provided more and more reliable methods to study palimpsested manuscripts, with a view to rendering accessible the otherwise invisible scriptio inferior. At the same time, refinements in the concept of manuscripts as evolving entities (Andrist/Canart/Maniaci 2013 and Friedrich/Schwarke 2016) provide further analytical tools for a better understanding and conceptualization of palimpsests as complex written artefacts (re)created in the course of a special production process. With the present workshop – a continuation and expansion of a first workshop on palimpsests organized by the Cluster in October 2021 – we aim to bring together experts from different fields and disciplines and encourage discussion on the essentials of palimpsests from a cross-cultural perspective. During the workshop we will discuss the following issues (among others):
- the definition of ‘palimpsest’ in European and non-European manuscript cultures;
- the creation of palimpsests from a technical perspective, including the actors involved in their production, division of labour, etc.;
- contexts in which palimpsests were created, and the underlying motives of ‘palimpsest culture’, including aspects of cross-linguistic and cross-modal settings
- new methods for identifying palimpsests and deciphering their scriptio inferior;
- editorial approaches to the content of the scriptio inferior in palimpsests;
- approaches to the cataloguing of palimpsests.
Workshop Organiser: