Palimpsest

A palimpsest ( masculine or neuter, from Ancient Greek πάλιν palin " again " and ψάειν " rub, scrape ( off ) " psaein ) is an ancient or medieval manuscript page or reel that has been described, cleaned by scraping or washing, and then re- (Latin codex Rescriptus ). It is the process of rewriting, the man - described as Palimpsestieren - contrary to the etymological meaning.

In a figurative sense, surface structures are called palimpsest isolated, the overprinted by more recent influences and were almost invisible - such as the ghost craters in the lunar surface.

Production

Since writing materials like parchment in the Middle Ages was very precious manuscript pages described were often reused. Here, the writing was scraped or washed off. And chemical ink killer have been used as citric acid, to remove the ink. Most palimpsests consist of parchment or papyrus. Traces of the original text are often preserved and can often be made ​​by fluorescence Photography (formerly by gall or Gioberti tincture and X-rays ) visible nowadays, so that the reading of the ancient text is possible. Many ancient and medieval texts have survived only as such a " writing under the writing" and therefore incomplete. Some methods of visualizing the original texts have been developed and applied by Alban Dold.

Important copies

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

One of the most important palimpsest is the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, have survived, of which only about 203 pages of the original 238. The original text of the Bible, which was made in the fifth century in Egypt, one scraped from the twelfth century and wrote it in Greek letters with homilies of Ephrem the Syrian. Today, the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus is kept in the National Library in Paris.

De re publica (Cicero )

Cicero's De re publica Even from his first philosophical phase was long considered lost. They knew the contents of only fragments and quotations in other authors, while an original tradition was untraceable. In 1819, was Angelo Mai in the Vatican Library a palimpsest in which large parts of the first and second book, also excerpts of the third, fourth and fifth book, but no trace of the sixth were to be found, with the majority of the sixth book in any case by the separate tradition of the Somnium Scipionis was known. They tried to existing fragments and quotes classified according to the context. Overridden Cicero's De re publica was with Psalm commentaries of Augustine. Despite the surprising discovery there was no scientific study of this work. It was not until 1918, began to deal more closely with the text. This continues to this day.

The Palimpsest of Archimedes

Another example is a recently rediscovered book of Archimedes in which this might outlines the main principles of modern integral calculus. So Archimedes was able to calculate the center of gravity of a solid hemisphere and one Paraboloidenstumpfs. Above all, he was able to identify the area that is formed when a parabola is cut from one of its secants. Area calculations are studied since ancient times. In the 5th century BC, Eudoxus of Cnidus developed from an idea by Antiphon the method of exhaustion, which was to complete a body by regular polygons. He could thus determine areas and volumes of some simple body. Archimedes improved this approach, and so he managed to exact integration of a parabola - without the use of a threshold concept. He proved that the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle larger than the ratio of 6336 to 2017 ¼ but less than the ratio of 14688 to 4673 ½.

Konstantin von Tischendorf discovered in 1846 this text. Although he did not understand him, he still rated him as significant. In 1907, he was then translated by the Danish philologist JL Heiberg partially. As a result of the First World War came the book in oblivion until it bought in 1998 at auction at Christie's by an anonymous collector for $ 2.2 million and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore was passed. More than ten years worked a team of experts working to make the overridden in the 13th century drawings and characters recognizable and translate. Beginning of August 2006 succeeded in doing a group of scientists led by physicist Uwe Bergmann, to make the original text visible with X-rays.

This so-called Code C is currently the only known source for the methodology, the Stomachion and the Greek version of About floating body and was probably in the late 10th century, due to the characteristic time for this minuscule script, written down.

Today's palimpsests as street art

In the street art palimpsests are used in the form of stickers often. Basis are usually mail label that are sprayed using a stencil. They are often linked with political messages, as this example of an anti-fascist Palimpsest sticker.

Figurative meaning

The technique of Palimpsestierens been used since the mid-19th century, several times as a metaphor for spiritual and creative processes.

The English essayist Thomas De Quincey compares Suspiria de Profundis in (1845 ) the human mind and especially the memory of a palimpsest:

" What else than a natural and mighty palimpsest is the human brain? Such a palimpsest is my brain; seeking a palimpsest, O reader! is yours. Everlasting layers of ideas, images, feelings, have fall upon your brain softly as light. Each succession Has Seemed to bury all that went before. And yet in reality not one HAS BEEN extinguished. "

Sigmund Freud developed 80 years later in his note on the mystic writing pad ' (1925 ) a related model of the human mind. In a child's toy ( the so-called miracles block) that enables always new writing and erasure of characters on a pressure-sensitive wax plate, while retaining traces of all previous enrollments as invisible recesses, he sees the two essential conditions are met, which make human memory for him must: " Unlimited Capacity and maintenance of permanent traces " (lit.: Freud, 1968, p 4).

Structuralists and post-structuralists use the palimpsest as a literary motif for the function of writing: For them, the Palimpsest in the foreground that writing, written material exists only in the existence of others. Palimpsests undermine the concept of the author as a single, real source of a work, and thus represent the meaning of a work to the end of an infinite chain of many meanings.

In the literary avant-garde, the palimpsest next to the collage and montage is a central artistic process. A poem of Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus band is titled palimpsests.

In abstract expressionism, especially in the artists' group CoBrA, the principle of re-use of documents ( for example, maps ) is also summarized under the term " palimpsest ", especially in works of Pierre Alechinsky and Asger Jorn. Quote Pierre Alechinsky: "I work on various painting surfaces ... pages from old cash books, notarial acts, old bills, russian prints, outdated air tickets, etc., which I re- edit after the palimpsest principle, as I guide myself by reading the daily concerns of other times let, which are so similar to ours. "

The title of the autobiography of the American writer Gore Vidal and a composition by Iannis Xenakis also be palimpsest.

In medicine is understood ( the so-called film rupture) under the palimpsest alcohol-related amnesia.

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