Palimpsest

For other uses, see Palimpsest (disambiguation).
The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, a Greek manuscript of the Bible from the 5th century, is a palimpsest.

In textual studies, a palimpsest (/ˈpælɪmpsɛst/) is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse[1] in the form of another document.[2] Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin and was expensive and not readily available, so, in the interest of economy, a page was often re-used by scraping off the previous writing. In colloquial usage, the term palimpsest is also used in architecture, archaeology and geomorphology to denote an object made or worked upon for one purpose and later reused for another; for example, a monumental brass the reverse blank side of which has been re-engraved.[3]

  1. ^ [1] palimpsest defibitions
  2. ^ Lyons, Martyn (2011). Books: A Living History. California: J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 215. ISBN 978-1-60606-083-4.
  3. ^ Page-Phillips, John (1980). Palimpsests - the backs of monumental brasses.