Zum Einsatz verschiedener digitaler Verfahren in der Palimpsestforschung

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The erased script in medieval parchment palimpsest manuscripts can be recovered to some degree by means of digital imaging. This paper discusses the basic as well as practical aspects in the use of specific sets of equipment based on the authors’ own experience with Greek palimpsests. Methods used are regular white light RGB color imaging, UV fluorescence and reflected UV light imaging, multispectral imaging and x-ray fluorescence element mapping (the latter not covered in this paper).

Success of optical imaging procedures varies widely between manuscripts (and even between individual pages). Of the optical methods, UV fluorescence delivers the best results in many cases (though x-ray fluorescence mapping shows these to be in fact quite limited, too). Imaging systems and equipment vary in resolution, cost and portability, and the system to use is often chosen as the result of a compromise between these variables. Very high resolution cannot always be effectively used unless manuscript leaves are sufficiently flat (in some cases satisfactory results would require dissolution of the binding). Success of any of these approaches depends on the scholars’ input during the imaging campaigns and on joint evaluation of the imaged data in particular where post-processing may affect the interpretation of results by the scholar. None of the currently available systems is completely automated, the processing will always require individual adaptation based on the imaged manuscripts. Further developments, which should take the input of involved manuscript scholars into account, are to be expected.

In September 2008, the seventh edition of the International Colloquium of Greek Palaeography (Madrid-Salamanca, 15-20 September 2008) celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Palaeographia Graeca, the pioneer work of the Benedictine Bernard de Montfaucon that established the fundamentals of the discipline. Papers by renowned specialists in the field contributed to the methodology of study and to our knowledge of Greek manuscripts, and opened new perspectives for the study of the Greek manuscripts preserved mostly in European libraries, taking into account new methodological approaches, the possibilities of online resources and the results of ongoing research projects.

The Proceedings published here include contributions by specialists from over ten different countries, dealing with palaeographical issues such as ancient capital and lower-case lettering, writing and books in the Macedonian, Comnenian and Palaeologan periods, and Greek scribes and ateliers in the Renaissance (especially in manuscripts from the Iberian Peninsula). Many contributors also take a codicological approach and consider the material aspects of the codex, as well as other new research techniques. Finally, some papers deal with the book as object and how this relates to its content, as well as with the history of texts.

The International Colloquia of Greek Palaeography are organized by the International Committee of Greek Palaeography, presided by Prof. Dieter Harlfinger. The seventh edition payed tribute to the memory of the late Jean Irigoin, who died in 2006.