A parchment which has been written upon twice, the first writing having been erased to make place for the second. The erasures of ancient writings were usually carried on in monasteries, to allow the production of ecclesiastical texts, such as copies of church services and lives of the saints. The difficulty of recovering the original text varied with the process used to prepare the parchment for a fresh writing; the original texts on parchments which had been washed with lime-water and dried were easily recovered by a chemical process, but those erased by scraping the parchment and bleaching are difficult to interpret. Most of the manuscripts underlying the palimpsests that have been revived are fragmentary, but some are of great historical value. One Syriac version of the Four Gospels was discovered in 1895 in St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis. See also the notes below.
A manuscript that has been written on twice. Usually, the first text is worn out with use, and, rather than buy new parchment, the scribe simply writes over the old text.
A manuscript with two scripts where one has been obliterated by scraping or washing the parchment and writing another text over it. The obliterated script is the underscript and the newer script is the overscript.
A palimpsest is a parchment manuscript which contained writing but has been scraped, washed off, smoothed and rewritten upon. Of the 250 uncial manuscripts of the New Testament known today, 52 are palimpsests. It is only through the use of modern technology, such as chemical reagents and ultraviolet light, that the obliterated writing is able to be read.
palimpsest is a text which has been reused by washing off old ink and writing new ink in the same area. An example of a palimpsest is P.Mich.inv. 2754
Literally, "scraped again," a palimpset is a manuscript, usually parchment, that has been erased or scraped and reused.
A vellum manscript which was erased with pumice at some time so that anothe manuscript could be written on top of it.
An erased parchment, which is then reused.
A writing (parchment, slab, or brass sheet) with the original text removed or hidden to allow a new text to be placed on it.
a manuscript (usually written on papyrus or parchment) on which more than one text has been written with the earlier writing incompletely erased and still visible
a book where the pages are made of vellum, or animal skin parchment, where the text can be scraped off and used again for some other purpose
a document in which an original text was erased and overwritten with a new message
a document which has something else written on top of previous writings
a manuscript consisting of a later writing superimposed upon an original writing
a manuscript in which pages have been written on twice
a manuscript, of parchment or the like, upon which the writing has been erased or partially scraped off, and at times a new text is simply written over the old text
a manuscript of parchment (specially treated animal skin) which has received more than one layer of writing
a manuscript on which the original handwritten images have been removed and replaced with new text
a manuscript that has been imperfectly erased and used a second time
a manuscript that has been re-used by writing over the original writing, often at right angles to it, and sometimes more than once
a manuscript that has been written over two or more times, each time erasing what has been written before, although traces of the original writing may still be visible
a manuscript the pages of which have been written on twice
a manuscript whose leaves have been written on twice
a manuscript whose pages have been written on twice
a medieval manuscript written over an earlier obliterated manuscript
a medieval parchment that scribes attempted to scrape clean and use again, though they were unable to obliterate all traces of the original
a MSS from which one writing has been erased to make room for another
a parchment from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text
a piece of parchment or vellum (ie, made from the hide of a sheep or a lamb
a tablet or parchment that has been used many times
a text that had the original scrapped off and other material written over it
a text which has been washed so that another text can be written on top
a work written on parchment on which one manuscript has been erased and another written over it
A velum (animal skin) document which was scrapped to remove the original writing and re-used for a later document. Due to the scarcity and cost of writing materials, quality vellums were often erased so that the skins could be used again. In most palimpsests, it is the original document which is of greatest importance. The first writing can often be seen with ultra-violet light or special photography techniques.
a manuscript which has been re-used by scraping off the original text and writing over the top
A manuscript on which an earlier text has been effaced and the vellum or parchment reused for another. It was a common practice, particularly in medieval ecclesiastical circles, to rub out an earlier piece of writing by means of washing or scraping the manuscript, in order to prepare it for a new text.
" Paper, parchment, or other writing material designed to be reusable after any writing on it has been erased. b. In extended use: a thing likened to such a writing surface, esp. in having been reused or altered while still retaining traces of its earlier form; a multi-layered record." (From the OED.n.A,1-2) Glossary Glossary (History of Reading)
A palimpsest is a manuscript page, whether from scroll or book that has been written on , scraped off, and used again. The word palimpsest comes through Latin from two Greek roots (palin + psEn) meaning "scraped again." Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be reused, and a passing use of the rather bookish term "palimpsest" by Cicero seems to refer to this practice.