Dear all,
This is similar to, if not the same as, the technology Dr. Zinn was describing--the Ancient Texts Imaging Group at Brigham Young University uses multi-spectral imaging (first used by NASA) to read palimpsests and darkened papyrus damaged by fire.
Here's an old article about the technology, though they're still active and were at the University of Michigan in the last couple of weeks imaging some of our papyrus collection: http://www.et.byu.edu/news_imaging.htm
I know this works best if the two inks on top of each other are made of different compounds, so that one is enhanced as the other one fades (some work best with infrared rays, some with UV, etc). However, I don't think this technology could be applied to scanned images--the leaves would have to be imaged again using the multi-spectral filters.
Best, Rebecca Welzenbach
Quoting Grover Zinn grover.zinn@oberlin.edu:
Dear Dr. Wisnicki and All,
I'm not sure if this is totally relevant, but I think that it is. In dealing with the Greek manuscripts that were discovered at St. Catherine's (the Sinai) a couple of decades ago (I think), James Charlesworth (of Princeton Theological Seminary) was able to use imaging technology from NASA (I believe) to recover images in palimpsest leaves. (He talked about this while he was at Oberlin giving the Haskell Lectures).
I'll try to follow up on this a bit. (And this technology may be widely known by now.) It seems like it would work to distinguish between the "two texts".
Best regards
Grover Zinn
Grover A. Zinn William H. Danforth Professor of Religion (emeritus) former Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Oberlin College Oberlin, OH 44074 440-775-8866 (department) grover.zinn@oberlin.edu
On Jul 5, 2009, at 4:45 PM, Daniel Paul O'Donnell wrote:
Hi all,
I thought I'd pass this on to our list and digital classicist, since some of us may have had experience with similar techniques (I'm relatively sure I saw a talk on the question recently). Please make sure you cc Dr. Wisnicki, since he may not hang out in our circles!
I’ve come across a textual issue that I’m not sure how to resolve, and I’m hoping that someone on the list might have some suggestions or even the answer. I’m currently doing some research on the final African diaries of David Livingstone, the missionary and explorer. While keeping these diaries, Livingstone was often short of paper and, as a result, resorted to various expedients to keep the diaries going. One of these expedients was to take printed pages from books and newspapers, and, by turning the pages 90 degrees, to write his diary over the printed text, but perpendicular to it. Although perhaps legible at the time, these diary entries now are often difficult to decipher: Livingstone’s ink has faded and the printed text obscures what remains.
So, in other words, the diary entries have two layers of text: printed matter which runs horizontally across the page, and Livingstone’s entries which run vertically. I’ve scanned some of these pages and was wondering if there’s a way (or, perhaps, a program) by which I might remove the printed layer so as to make the handwritten layer freestanding and so more legible. Has anyone on the list dealt with (and resolved) a similar issue? If so, please email me at awisnicki@yahoo.com -- any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Dr. Adrian S. Wisnicki Honorary Research Fellow School of English and Humanities Birkbeck College, University of London
-- Daniel Paul O'Donnell Associate Professor of English University of Lethbridge
Chair and CEO, Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org/) Co-Chair, Digital Initiatives Advisory Board, Medieval Academy of America President-elect (English), Society for Digital Humanities/Société pour l'étude des médias interactifs (http://sdh-semi.org/) Founding Director (2003-2009), Digital Medievalist Project (http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/)
Vox: +1 403 329-2377 Fax: +1 403 382-7191 (non-confidental) Home Page: http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/
Digital Medievalist -- http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/ Journal: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal/ Journal Editors: editors _AT_ digitalmedievalist.org News: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/news/ Wiki: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/wiki/ Discussion list: dm-l@uleth.ca Change list options: http://listserv.uleth.ca/mailman/listinfo/dm-l
Digital Medievalist -- http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/ Journal: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal/ Journal Editors: editors _AT_ digitalmedievalist.org News: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/news/ Wiki: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/wiki/ Discussion list: dm-l@uleth.ca Change list options: http://listserv.uleth.ca/mailman/listinfo/dm-l