Codex Zacynthius Spectral Imaging Project

2018-2020, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

A collaboration of EMEL, Cambridge University Library, and the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing at Birmingham University. The project is led by Professor David Parker (Principal Investigator) and Dr Hugh Houghton (Co-Investigator) and is funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Grant.

The erased layer of Codex Zacynthius, a palimpsest, preserves a 7th/8th century copy of the Gospel of Luke, which is the oldest Greek New Testament manuscript to contain extracts from writings by early Christian theologians alongside the biblical text.

Recovering these original extracts reveals tantalizing glimpses of lost writings and lost interpretations of the Gospels. A full transcription is being produced, along with an innovative presentation of images of the undertext and overtext, all of which will be openly available online through Cambridge Digital Library.

Similar Projects

  • Vatopedi Palimpsests Project

    2024–present, Vatopedi Monastery, Mt. Athos, Greece. The “Vatopedi Palimpsests Project” is a pioneering collaboration between the Holy Vatopedi Monastery, the UCLA Library, and the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL); with the participation of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. This ambitious initiative aims to systematically study and digitally recover the hidden texts within all palimpsest manuscripts housed…

  • Sinai Palimpsests Project

    2011-2016, St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai, Egypt. A collaboration of EMEL, St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai, and the UCLA Library to recover erased texts from the Monastery’s many palimpsests.  The project spectrally imaged 74 palimpsests (6,800 pages), identified 305 erased texts from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and created world’s largest collection…

  • Integrating Spectral and Reflection Transformation Imaging Technologies

    2013 – 2014, Funded by National Endowment for the Humanities [FAIN: HD-51709-13] 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…

  • Restoring David Livingstone’s Nyangwe Diary

    2012, David Livingstone Library, Scotland, UK. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities [FAIN: HD-51042-10]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…

  • Vienna Palimpsests Projects

    2013-present, Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria. EMEL is a long-term partner with the Austrian National Library and the Byzantine Research Division of Institute for Medieval Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences. EMEL provides spectral imaging and image processing to recover erased ancient texts on selected palimpsests. Funded by the Austrian Science Foundation. 2019 to present, the…