Palimpsest Discovered in Recently Acquired Roll
Roll before and after multispectral imaging. The poem is visible under the stain in the middle of the photo.
Exciting new discoveries are always possible in the world of manuscript studies, but even we were unprepared for what emerged from Penn’s latest acquisition. Recently, the Library purchased a fragment of a Genealogy of Christ roll—an important addition to our collection. “But upon close examination,” explains SIMS Curator of Digital Humanities Dot Porter, “it became clear that the parchment had been reused; an earlier text was erased, and new text was written over. It’s a palimpsest.”
Enter Multispectral Imaging, conducted by Dr. Helen Davies, assistant professor of the digital humanities in the English department and co-director of the Center for the Digital Humanities at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
Helen Davies imaging the roll
Dr. Davies described the process: “I imaged the roll using multispectral imaging, and as the data was processed, words began to emerge.”
And not just any words.
Amey Hutchens, University of Pennsylvania Libraries Manuscripts Cataloger, has confirmed that the undertext is an entirely unknown poem, strikingly similar in style and theme to the works of the enigmatic classical lyricist Ricardus Astleaus.
“Could this be a lost work of the poet himself?” Schoenberg Curator of Manuscripts Nicholas Herman voices the question we’re all asking. “The implications are staggering.”
We welcome input from the scholarly community, who can read a transcription of the poem “Tete Numquam Relinquam” here.
