Books by Giulia Rossetto
C. Rapp, G. Rossetto, J. Grusková, G. Kessel (eds), New Light on Old Manuscripts: The Sinai Palimpsests and Other Advances in Palimpsest Studies (Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung 45), Vienna, 2023
Open access - the entire book can be downloaded for free via: https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/produkt/n... more Open access - the entire book can be downloaded for free via: https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/produkt/new-light-on-old-manuscripts/99200804?name=new-light-on-old-manuscripts&product_form=4966
The study of palimpsest manuscripts has a long tradition and has led to spectacular discoveries of new texts or new text versions. Recent decades have seen the development of advanced nondestructive methods of multispectral imaging and computer-based image processing. The focus of such research have been individual manuscripts, such as the Archimedes palimpsest that was studied in Baltimore, or the Dexippus fragments in Vienna. The Sinai Palimpsests Project broke new ground by studying for the first time a collection of palimpsest manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in the library of the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai (Egypt). The erased layers preserve texts in eleven languages of the Christian Orient. An international team of scholars has identified numerous new texts or versions of texts, often in very early scripts. This volume has its origin in a conference that was held in Vienna in 2018, where these results of the Sinai Palimpsests Project were presented, along with the advances in image capture and image processing that have made them possible. Additional contributions about current projects in the study of palimpsests, also including Jewish and Muslim text traditions, place the study of palimpsest manuscripts within the larger context of the cultural history of the middle ages. The 30 contributions in this volume thus offer a cross-section, including the most recent technologies, of the current state of research in palimpsest studies.
Mobility and migration were not uncommon in Byzantium, as is true for all societies. Yet, scholar... more Mobility and migration were not uncommon in Byzantium, as is true for all societies. Yet, scholarship is only beginning to pay attention to these phenomena. This book presents in English translation a wide array of relevant source texts from ca. 650 to ca. 1450 originally written in medieval Greek: from administrative records, saints’ lives and letters by churchmen to ego-documents by ambassadors and historical narratives by court historians. Each source text is accompanied by a detailed introduction, commentary and further bibliography, thus making the book accessible to both scholars and students and laying the groundwork for future research on the internal dynamics of Byzantine society.
Open access - the entire book can be downloaded for free via: https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/book/10.14220/9783737013413?fbclid=IwAR1l2K37GzARH1Ts8hTQYaYvAokpjgaf0URlZnvo4gTX1v8KNRzJ6OQLT6c
La biblioteca / βιβλιοθήκη Greco. Lingua, storia e cultura di una grande civiltà (cur. R. Tondini), 2023
Accessible here: https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/produkt/greek-palimpsests-at-saint-catherine-s-monaste... more Accessible here: https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/produkt/greek-palimpsests-at-saint-catherine-s-monastery-sinai/99200900?product_form=4668
Built in the 6th century at the order of Emperor Justinian, the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai desert preserves the oldest Christian monastic library with an uninterrupted history. This Greek Orthodox monastery houses a significant collection of manuscripts, including a large number
of palimpsest manuscripts (over 170). Eleven different languages are attested in their erased layers as scriptiones inferiores: they reflect the long history and the multicultural nature of the Sinai
collection.
This book lies at the intersection of palimpsest studies and the investigation of the Byzantine Greek Euchologia (prayer books), with an additional focus on the history of the Sinai library. It offers the first inventory of the Greek palimpsests preserved at the Monastery of Saint Catherine including a list of newly identified membra disiecta sinaitica. The second part contains the detailed description and historical analysis of three selected Sinai Euchologia (Sin. gr. 960, Sin. gr. 962, Sin. gr. 966) written on recycled parchment, which have never been studied with regard to their scriptiones inferiores. This study thus offers new insights into the history and development of the Sinai collection of manuscripts over the centuries.
Articles by Giulia Rossetto
Studi di Egittologia e Papirologia, 2024
The paper offers a reappraisal of the Greek fragmentary papyrus codex PMil i 2.17 (inv. 36), whic... more The paper offers a reappraisal of the Greek fragmentary papyrus codex PMil i 2.17 (inv. 36), which contains a literary text in prose. The scene on the recto seems to be identifiable with a naval battle, while the verso contains a dialogue between two characters. The article provides a revised edition of the fragment, a detailed palaeographic analysis and a reconsideration of its content. In the light of the collected data, the author suggests to date the fragmentary papyrus codex to the first half
of the 3rd century AD and argues that it probably comes from a novel rather than a historical or mythhistorical text.
Mitteilungen aus der Würzburger Papyrussammlung II (P.Würzb. II) , 2024
Byzantion, 2023
Der vorliegende Artikel bietet eine umfassende Beschreibung und Analyse einer höchst bedeutsamen ... more Der vorliegende Artikel bietet eine umfassende Beschreibung und Analyse einer höchst bedeutsamen Handschrift der Jakobos-Liturgie aus dem späten 11. Jh., die sowohl für Liturgiewissenschaftler als auch für Paläographen von großem Interesse ist. Die Handschrift Sinai gr. NF Σ3 (Diktyon 79508) wurde in griechischer Sprache von einem zweisprachigen (griechisch-arabischen) Schreiber geschrieben, der auch Anmerkungen und ein Kolophon in arabischer Sprache hinzufügte. Das Kolophon nennt den Namen des Schreibers (eines Priesters Samuel), das Datum der Handschrift (a. 1097/8) und den Ort, an dem sie kopiert wurde (Ascalon in Südpalästina), was sie zu einer der wenigen griechischen liturgischen Handschriften aus Palästina macht, die sich zeitlich und räumlich zuverlässig lokalisieren lassen. Insbesondere die arabischen Rubriken geben uns ein besseres Verständnis dafür, wie diese Liturgie Ende des 11. Jhs. in Palästina gefeiert wurde.
C. Rapp, G. Rossetto, J. Grusková, G. Kessel (eds), New Light on Old Manuscripts: The Sinai Palimpsests and Other Advances in Palimpsest Studies (Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung 45), Vienna, 2023
updated: 22.01.2021. This number does not include the over 100 palimpsest fragments from the frag... more updated: 22.01.2021. This number does not include the over 100 palimpsest fragments from the fragments collection of the Monastery, which were surveyed and documented by Damianos Kasotakis from March to May 2020. 2 On the language distribution among the overtexts and the undertexts, see Rapp, Secluded Place or Global Magnet? and Rapp's contribution to this volume. 3 The exact total number of Sinai manuscripts was indicated to me by Father Justin Sinaites (personal communication, February 2021). See also Frøyshov, Les manuscrits de la bibliothèque du Sinaï, 61. 4 The latter term was used during the Sinai Palimpsests Project. 5 As far as the Sinai palimpsests are concerned, only in few cases was one textual unit or UTO copied by more than one hand. This happens for texts of documentary nature, such as those extant as scriptiones inferiores in Sin. ar. NF 8 (Diktyon 58318). 6 The Appendix indicates the names of the scholars who identified the texts which I take into consideration in this article.
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2022
Studia Patristica, 2021
The earliest extant Byzantine prayer books in codex form date back to the late 8 th century. Howe... more The earliest extant Byzantine prayer books in codex form date back to the late 8 th century. However, they are the result of the collection of older material, whose traces we find scattered on different kinds of material supports such as pieces of papyrus and parchment. What has survived and what has gone lost? By considering from a codicological point of view the ten earliest Byzantine Greek Euchologia in codex form, this article lays the ground to start exploring the open question of continuity in the use of liturgical material. It also helps to shed some light on the ways the Euchologion was assembled.
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2021
The palimpsest manuscript Sin. ar. NF 66 is one of the treasures of the Monastery of Saint Cather... more The palimpsest manuscript Sin. ar. NF 66 is one of the treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine located in the Sinai Peninsula. Nowadays it consists of a few fragmentary parchment sheets, but originally it was a larger codex of ca. 300 folia. Some of these leaves have been purloined from the Sinai and are now kept in Cambridge, Leipzig, and Saint Petersburg, while others have been lost. The codex contained the Lives of Palestinian monastic Saints in Arabic translation and was copied at the Monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem in the first quarter of the 10th century. It was later brought, under unknown circumstances, to the Sinai. All preserved folia are palimpsests, with scriptiones inferiores in Greek and Christian Palestinian Aramaic. This article focuses on one of the Greek erased texts – a previously unknown classical text in hexameters of mythological content – and offers its editio princeps. Based on an analysis of codicological and palaeographical features, combined with that of linguistic and stylistic elements, it will be suggested that the Sinai hexameters might originate from the Hieroi Logoi in 24 Rhapsodies, i.e. the longest lost Orphic poem we know of.
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 2017
This multiauthored article presents a new project to study Byzantine prayer books (euchologia) b... more This multiauthored article presents a new project to study Byzantine prayer books (euchologia) by a team of scholars at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The longterm aim of the project is to create a census of all extant prayer book manuscripts for the use of priests in Greek up to the year 1650, in order to facilitate the study of the ‘occasional prayers’ as sources for daily life and social history. After an extended introduction to the history of scholarship and the methodological challenges encountered in the first three years of the project, the first two individual contributions highlight the importance of manuscript study in situ, by addressing issues of codicology and the history of manuscripts as evidenced in the liturgical commemorations they contain. The following three contributions demonstrate the value of the ‘small prayers’ as a largely untapped historical source through the study of prayers for changing religious affiliation, prayers for female purity in conjunction with childbirth, and prayers in the context of primary education.
Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2017
From October 1884 to May 1885 Karl Krumbacher (1856 – 1909) undertook a journey to Greece and Tur... more From October 1884 to May 1885 Karl Krumbacher (1856 – 1909) undertook a journey to Greece and Turkey with the aim of studying the Modern Greek dialects. He describes his trip in the book Griechische Reise (Berlin 1886), which has been the only source about Krumbacher’s travel so far. The present article offers the edition and commentary of six hitherto unknown letters addressed by Karl Krumbacher to his friend and colleague Wilhelm Meyer between October 1884 and January 1885. These letters, preserved in the University Library of Göttingen, shed light on the importance of the Greek journey for Krumbacher’s research not only in the field of Greek linguistics, but also of Byzantine hymnography.
Byzanz und das Abendland II. Studia Byzantino-Occidentalia, Nov 2014
Talks by Giulia Rossetto
Ragghianti e l'architettura medievale attraverso le immagini della Fototeca Ragghianti Sara Salva... more Ragghianti e l'architettura medievale attraverso le immagini della Fototeca Ragghianti Sara Salvadori, Traducendo l'arte tardoromana: il viaggio da libro a critofilm Laura Violi, Non solo fotografie. La fototeca di Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti: un esteso e multiforme patrimonio visivo per lo studio dell'arte medievale Rachele Zanone, L'astrazione geometrica nell'arte medievale in Europa e oltre. Il contributo di Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti
É risaputo che il prezzo elevato della pergamena e le difficoltà nel reperirla vanno annoverati f... more É risaputo che il prezzo elevato della pergamena e le difficoltà nel reperirla vanno annoverati fra i motivi scatenanti del riciclo di manoscritti. Tuttavia, chi lavora con i palinsesti è solito avere a che fare con manoscritti i cui fogli e bifogli furono riutilizzati in quanto tali, tutt’al più cambiandone l’orientamento originale. Fra quelli oggi conservati presso il Monastero di Santa Caterina (Sinai) si osserva però un’ulteriore strategia di recupero: alcuni di essi furono allestiti ritagliando e cucendo assieme pezzi di pergamena provenienti da fogli di manoscritti diversi, risultando dei veri e propri “patchwork”.
Dopo una panoramica sui manoscritti di questo tipo identificati sul Sinai, la relazione verterà su uno specifico caso di studio, il manoscritto Sin. ar. NF 8. Si tratta di un codice arabo (scriptio superior: Vangeli, seconda metà del IX secolo) che fu preparato riutilizzando fogli e ritagli provenienti da manoscritti greci, arabi, siriaci e latini, a volte perfino bis rescripti. In essi è stato possibile identificare 31 testi diversi, provenienti da almeno 20 libri. Come descrivere tale complessità? Nell’intervento verranno illustrate le modalità utilizzate per studiare questo inusuale manoscritto. Verranno inoltre proposte alcune osservazioni su tecniche e finalità della palinsestazione.
CEDOPAL), L'Empédocle du Caire (P.Fouad inv. 218). Découverte, identification et apport à la litt... more CEDOPAL), L'Empédocle du Caire (P.Fouad inv. 218). Découverte, identification et apport à la littérature grecque Giulia Rossetto (Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik der Universität Wien), A New Tale on the Childhood of Dionysus in the Palimpsest Sin. ar. NF 66: The Challenge of Working with an Unknown Classical Text Luca Benelli (Universitat de Barcelona), Philitas, the Cynics and more in the Yale Papyrus-codex (P. Ct. YBR inv. 4000) Discussions à visée méthodologique, par les responsables des Ateliers de papyrologie littéraire Il sera possible de suivre à distance les communications de cette séance, à l'exception de celle de N. Carlig ; un lien de connexion sera envoyé aux personnes inscrites auprès de
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Books by Giulia Rossetto
The study of palimpsest manuscripts has a long tradition and has led to spectacular discoveries of new texts or new text versions. Recent decades have seen the development of advanced nondestructive methods of multispectral imaging and computer-based image processing. The focus of such research have been individual manuscripts, such as the Archimedes palimpsest that was studied in Baltimore, or the Dexippus fragments in Vienna. The Sinai Palimpsests Project broke new ground by studying for the first time a collection of palimpsest manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in the library of the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai (Egypt). The erased layers preserve texts in eleven languages of the Christian Orient. An international team of scholars has identified numerous new texts or versions of texts, often in very early scripts. This volume has its origin in a conference that was held in Vienna in 2018, where these results of the Sinai Palimpsests Project were presented, along with the advances in image capture and image processing that have made them possible. Additional contributions about current projects in the study of palimpsests, also including Jewish and Muslim text traditions, place the study of palimpsest manuscripts within the larger context of the cultural history of the middle ages. The 30 contributions in this volume thus offer a cross-section, including the most recent technologies, of the current state of research in palimpsest studies.
Open access - the entire book can be downloaded for free via: https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/book/10.14220/9783737013413?fbclid=IwAR1l2K37GzARH1Ts8hTQYaYvAokpjgaf0URlZnvo4gTX1v8KNRzJ6OQLT6c
Built in the 6th century at the order of Emperor Justinian, the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai desert preserves the oldest Christian monastic library with an uninterrupted history. This Greek Orthodox monastery houses a significant collection of manuscripts, including a large number
of palimpsest manuscripts (over 170). Eleven different languages are attested in their erased layers as scriptiones inferiores: they reflect the long history and the multicultural nature of the Sinai
collection.
This book lies at the intersection of palimpsest studies and the investigation of the Byzantine Greek Euchologia (prayer books), with an additional focus on the history of the Sinai library. It offers the first inventory of the Greek palimpsests preserved at the Monastery of Saint Catherine including a list of newly identified membra disiecta sinaitica. The second part contains the detailed description and historical analysis of three selected Sinai Euchologia (Sin. gr. 960, Sin. gr. 962, Sin. gr. 966) written on recycled parchment, which have never been studied with regard to their scriptiones inferiores. This study thus offers new insights into the history and development of the Sinai collection of manuscripts over the centuries.
Articles by Giulia Rossetto
of the 3rd century AD and argues that it probably comes from a novel rather than a historical or mythhistorical text.
Talks by Giulia Rossetto
Dopo una panoramica sui manoscritti di questo tipo identificati sul Sinai, la relazione verterà su uno specifico caso di studio, il manoscritto Sin. ar. NF 8. Si tratta di un codice arabo (scriptio superior: Vangeli, seconda metà del IX secolo) che fu preparato riutilizzando fogli e ritagli provenienti da manoscritti greci, arabi, siriaci e latini, a volte perfino bis rescripti. In essi è stato possibile identificare 31 testi diversi, provenienti da almeno 20 libri. Come descrivere tale complessità? Nell’intervento verranno illustrate le modalità utilizzate per studiare questo inusuale manoscritto. Verranno inoltre proposte alcune osservazioni su tecniche e finalità della palinsestazione.
The study of palimpsest manuscripts has a long tradition and has led to spectacular discoveries of new texts or new text versions. Recent decades have seen the development of advanced nondestructive methods of multispectral imaging and computer-based image processing. The focus of such research have been individual manuscripts, such as the Archimedes palimpsest that was studied in Baltimore, or the Dexippus fragments in Vienna. The Sinai Palimpsests Project broke new ground by studying for the first time a collection of palimpsest manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in the library of the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai (Egypt). The erased layers preserve texts in eleven languages of the Christian Orient. An international team of scholars has identified numerous new texts or versions of texts, often in very early scripts. This volume has its origin in a conference that was held in Vienna in 2018, where these results of the Sinai Palimpsests Project were presented, along with the advances in image capture and image processing that have made them possible. Additional contributions about current projects in the study of palimpsests, also including Jewish and Muslim text traditions, place the study of palimpsest manuscripts within the larger context of the cultural history of the middle ages. The 30 contributions in this volume thus offer a cross-section, including the most recent technologies, of the current state of research in palimpsest studies.
Open access - the entire book can be downloaded for free via: https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/book/10.14220/9783737013413?fbclid=IwAR1l2K37GzARH1Ts8hTQYaYvAokpjgaf0URlZnvo4gTX1v8KNRzJ6OQLT6c
Built in the 6th century at the order of Emperor Justinian, the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai desert preserves the oldest Christian monastic library with an uninterrupted history. This Greek Orthodox monastery houses a significant collection of manuscripts, including a large number
of palimpsest manuscripts (over 170). Eleven different languages are attested in their erased layers as scriptiones inferiores: they reflect the long history and the multicultural nature of the Sinai
collection.
This book lies at the intersection of palimpsest studies and the investigation of the Byzantine Greek Euchologia (prayer books), with an additional focus on the history of the Sinai library. It offers the first inventory of the Greek palimpsests preserved at the Monastery of Saint Catherine including a list of newly identified membra disiecta sinaitica. The second part contains the detailed description and historical analysis of three selected Sinai Euchologia (Sin. gr. 960, Sin. gr. 962, Sin. gr. 966) written on recycled parchment, which have never been studied with regard to their scriptiones inferiores. This study thus offers new insights into the history and development of the Sinai collection of manuscripts over the centuries.
of the 3rd century AD and argues that it probably comes from a novel rather than a historical or mythhistorical text.
Dopo una panoramica sui manoscritti di questo tipo identificati sul Sinai, la relazione verterà su uno specifico caso di studio, il manoscritto Sin. ar. NF 8. Si tratta di un codice arabo (scriptio superior: Vangeli, seconda metà del IX secolo) che fu preparato riutilizzando fogli e ritagli provenienti da manoscritti greci, arabi, siriaci e latini, a volte perfino bis rescripti. In essi è stato possibile identificare 31 testi diversi, provenienti da almeno 20 libri. Come descrivere tale complessità? Nell’intervento verranno illustrate le modalità utilizzate per studiare questo inusuale manoscritto. Verranno inoltre proposte alcune osservazioni su tecniche e finalità della palinsestazione.
In this paper I will examine manuscripts highlighting these ties. Specifically, after offering an overview of the significant number of Greek codices copied in Southern Italy and currently preserved in the Library of St. Catherine’s Monastery, the focus will shift to the analysis of the Italo-
Greek scribal hands identified in the erased layers (scriptiones inferiores) of Sinai palimpsests. These were recovered as part of the Sinai Palimpsests Project and will be discussed here as a whole for the
first time.
My contribution aims at gathering new and hitherto unknown evidence for the study of Southern Italian manuscript culture. It will help to enrich our knowledge about the connections between Southern Italy and the Sinai and about those who created them.
In this paper I will show how the Sinai Palimpsests Project developed the process of ‘searching’ for unseen texts in a large collection: I will describe workflow and methods of the Sinai Palimpsests Project, from the onsite codicological analysis and the multispectral imaging of the manuscripts, to the work of the participating scholars with the processed folios.
Afterward I will showcase a selected sample of discoveries of classical and non-classical texts from the Sinai Greek palimpsests. Among them: the earliest liturgical book from the Salento, an old inventory of books, an unknown herbal and an otherwise lost text in hexameters dealing with the childhood of Dionysus—chance findings that enrich our knowledge of the ancient Greek and Byzantine world.
Alexander Treiger is Professor of Religious Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the eastern coast of Canada. He is editor of the book series "Arabic Christianity: Texts and Studies” (Brill). His research activities are focused on Middle Eastern Christianity, Islamic Studies, and Graeco-Arabic Studies.
Where did priests learn to read and write? What did they copy and where? How did their libraries look? What did they do with their books? Little is known about these topics, and a general overview is missing, especially if we focus on clerics active in the Holy Land and Sinai. By addressing these and related topics, this conference will aim at gaining a better understanding about the social and cultural role of priests latu sensu (preferably priests and priestmonks, but also monks, nuns, lectors, deacons, bishops) in the Holy Land and Sinai.
Organizer: Dr. Giulia Rossetto (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Please send the title of your paper and an abstract (max. 300 words) to Giulia Rossetto ([email protected]) no later than March 15, 2023. The speakers will be notified by April 15.
If selected, we can offer you reimbursement for your travel expenses (second-class) as well as pre-paid accommodation for two nights in Vienna.
Ore 9.45: Introduzione ai lavori: G.B. D’Alessio (Università di Napoli Federico II)
Ore 10: Intorno alle Rapsodie Orfiche
Presiede G. Massimilla (Università di Napoli Federico II)
E. Cingano (Università di Venezia, Ca’ Foscari), Cercope esiodeo e Cercope pitagorico: il dibattito antico sull’attribuzione delle Rapsodie
Ore 10.30: L. Battezzato (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa- collegamento a distanza), Proemio al Sole: 102 F Bernabé = 63 Kern Discorsi sacri in 24 rapsodie
Ore 11.15 Pausa caffè
Ore 11.30: Presiede C. Pisano (Università di Napoli Federico II)
C. Rescigno (Università della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli- ACMA, SSM), Testi e contesti archeologici
Ore 12.00: Tavola rotonda sui nuovi testi dal palinsesto Sin. ar. NF 66
Partecipano: G. Agosti, L. Battezzato, E. Cingano, E. Magnelli, G.B. D’Alessio, G. Massimilla, C. Pisano, F. Pontani, G. Rossetto, M. Tortorelli Ghidini, G. Ucciardello
A. La ricostruzione del testo
I parte. Presiede G. Rossetto (IMAFO, ÖAW)
Il fr. A recto
Ore 13.00: Pausa Pranzo
Ore 14.00: Tavola rotonda sui nuovi testi dal palinsesto Sin. ar. NF 66
A. La ricostruzione del testo
II parte. Presiede G. Ucciardello (Università di Messina)
Il fr. A verso
Ore 15.00: III parte. Presiede G. Agosti (Università di Pisa)
Il fr. B recto
Ore 15.45: IV parte. Presiede F. Pontani (Università di Venezia, Ca’ Foscari)
Il fr. B verso
Ore 16.30 Pausa caffè
Ore 16 45: B. La metrica dei nuovi frammenti e i frammenti di tradizione indiretta:
interventi di G. Valentino (Università di Napoli, Federico II), E. Magnelli (Università di Firenze), G.B. D’Alessio
Ore 17.30: C. Problemi macro-testuali. Interpretazione e attribuzione.
Tavola rotonda. Presiede M. Tortorelli Ghidini (Università di Napoli Federico II)
Ore 18.15: G.B. D’Alessio: Conclusioni
You also find the call here:
https://rapp.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_rapp/Events_2019/Call_for_Papers_IMC_Leeds_2019_MoByz_Final.pdf
The conference will also feature work that has been accomplished in the course of the Sinai Palimpsests Project that is now available online (sinaipalimpsests.org). The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine is not only the oldest Christian monastery (including its library) in continuous operation, it also contains the world's largest collection of palimpsested manuscripts on parchment. In the course of the Sinai Palimpsests Project—undertaken at the invitation of the Monastery by an international team of camera specialists, image scientists, and textual scholars—more than half of this palimpsest collection was imaged using cutting-edge multispectral photography, rendered legible through innovative methods of computer-based analysis, and the erased texts identified by experts in all the languages of the Christian Orient.
The Opening Lecture by Father Justin Sinaites, the Librarian of Saint Catherine's Monastery, on the topic “The Sinai Palimpsests: Recovering Ancient Texts and the Early History of the Monastery” will take place on 24 April, 17:00 in the main building of the University of Vienna ("BIG Lecture Hall" Universitätsring 1, 1010 Vienna). The conference sessions will take place in the main building of the Austrian Academy of Sciences from 25th to 27th April (9:00-18:00/18:30 - at the “ÖAW Sitzungssaal”, Doktor-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, First Floor).
Supervisor: Prof. M. Losacco
Defended 15th October 2014
Supervisor: Prof. M. Losacco
Defended 13th July 2012
Seit Jahrhunderten werden im Katharinenkloster am Berg Sinai wertvolle Handschriften aufbewahrt, insgesamt mehr als 4500 Stück. Unter manchen Texten verbergen sich alte ausradierte Schriften, die Fachleute mit Hilfe digitaler Multispektralfotografie wieder sichtbar machen - und dabei verlorene Göttergeschichten der Antike entdecken.