2016, Austrian National Library. Funded by the Austrian Science Foundation. Continuing from initial imaging in 2013, this project applied advances in spectral imaging to Scythica Vindobonensia, Codex Historicus gr. 73 of the Austrian National Library, to elucidate further a unique witness to the historical writings of Dexippus, an Athenian historian of the 3rd c. CE. The…
2016, State Library of Berlin. EMEL spectrally imaged a palimpsest that preserves rare early Ethiopic texts, including the oldest surviving copy of the Books of Enoch, the oldest non-biblical Ethiopic text, and several yet unidentified texts. Funded by the German Research Council. EMEL applied spectral imaging to a rare Ethiopic palimpsest at the State Library…
2015, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Martellus’ map, which dates to about 1491, is a highly detailed map of the then known world – reputedly studied by Christopher Columbus. “Multispectral imaging recovered more information than we dared to hope for,” says Chet Van…
2015, Cambridge University Library. Coordinated by Judith Olszowy-Schlanger of the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, in collaboration with Ben Outhwaite of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, the project applied cutting-edge spectral imaging and multidisciplinary materials’ analysis to the study of dozens of Genizah fragments. Some of the fragments were palimpsests, and others were…
2014, The Vatican Library. Funded by the Classics Conclave, Oxford. In 2003, nearly 200 verses of an unknown comedy of Menander, a Greek dramatist (c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) were discovered in a palimpsest in the Vatican library. The verses by Menander are the oldest layer of writing in a double palimpsest, i.e., a…
2013 – 2014, Funded by National Endowment for the Humanities. This project integrated two proven technologies for imaging cultural artifacts: • Spectral imaging, which collects detailed color data in order to recover information which is indistinguishable to the naked eye, such as unreadable text on a manuscript or stages of revision in a painting.• Reflectance…
2013, Austrian National Library. Funded by the Austrian Science Foundation. Five unique Ancient Greek and Byzantine textual witnesses of great importance were imaged from palimpsests within the rescripti Vindobonenses. Imaging techniques included spectral reflective, fluorescence and transmissive modes. Austrian National Library – Division of Byzantine Research
2012, David Livingstone Library, Scotland, UK. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The David Livingstone Spectral Imaging Project was a collaborative, international effort to use spectral imaging technology and digital publishing to make available a series of faded, illegible texts produced by the famous Victorian explorer when stranded without ink or writing paper…
2006 – 2009, Funded by the Seaver Institute. EMEL worked with Stokes Imaging of Austin, Texas, to develop a computer-controlled cradle which supports fragile manuscripts during digitization and which improves efficiency and lowers costs for the digitization of large collections of precious manuscripts. This system is now installed at: • St. Catherine’s Monastery of the…
