Universität zu Köln

Voth, Christine (2015). What lies beneath: The application of digital technology to uncover writing obscured by a chemical reagent. In: Kodikologie und Paläographie im digitalen Zeitalter 3, pp. 47-64. BoD. ISBN 978-3-7347-9899-3

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Abstract

The Anglo-Saxon manuscript, London, British Library, Royal 12. D. XVII, is the oldest extant manuscript of Old English medical remedies (s. xmed). The manuscript ends incompletely on fol. 127v. On this same folio, a chemical reagent has been applied to several lines of writing along the long margin, obscuring the underlying text. This study adapts the digital technology established by Peter Stokes for uncovering palimpsests (2011) to uncover the writing hidden underneath the reagent. The methods are set out step by step in order that they may be repeated by others, or transferred for use on other damaged manuscripts. This study also reveals the underlying text as a possibly corrupted Hiberno-Latin charm, and provides an analysis and discussion of the text of the charm and its relation to the text of the manuscript. Overall, the results of this study further our understanding of the uses to which medical manuscripts were put during the Middle Ages, as well as providing a new means by which we can access text in damaged manuscripts.