This week I took part in a meeting of the Curatorial Department. One of the meeting’s topics was a manuscript called Codex Climaci Rescriptus. The team discussed plans to photograph the codex with multispectral imaging (MSI). By taking special pictures along the electromagnetic spectrum (between infrared and ultraviolet), this technique allows to rediscover information that is invisible for the human eye. This is possible because each material has a unique way to interact with light of different wavelengths. Since every manuscript contains of at least two materials, ink plus the material that it was written on, the technology is well applicable in this context and can be used to make illegible text legible again.
Why does Codex Climaci Rescriptus need MSI? The manuscript is a palimpsest, which means that a scribe took previously used writing material, erased the text on it, and then reused it for a new text. Recycling writing material in this way was not uncommon in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Perhaps the most famous biblical palimpsest is Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, whose underlying text, a 5th century Bible manuscript, was overwritten in the 12th century with writings by Ephrem the Syrian. This is typical palimpsest practice. MOTB’s Codex Climaci Rescriptus, however, plays in a whole different league: leaves from at least ten (!) older manuscripts were being recycled for this manuscript. The resulting “second-hand codex” was used for two writings by John Climacus in Syriac, probably at some time during the 9th century (here is a link to his work The Ladder of Divine Ascent, which is included in the codex). The much older writings that we find underneath feature passages from the Old and New Testaments in Aramaic and Greek plus several non-Christian writings. These texts can be dated to the 6th and 7th centuries. Ten different manuscripts have been distinguished so far. But since there are still some pages that have not yet been deciphered, the number might go up.
This is where multispectral imaging comes in. In 2010, the manuscript was processed with MSI for the first time. Yet only for four of 274 pages the work could be successfully completed. This is due to the fact that the codex is particularly difficult to deal with because it is made up of so many different pieces. From one page to the next, the ink as well as the erasing techniques can differ, and you might have use different settings every time in order to get the best results. Back in 2010, the Green Scholar’s Initiative was involved in the work, too. The video on this webpage gives an impression of the project six years ago, and it also nicely illustrates that taking images is only half of the business when it comes to MSI. The pictures surely determine the result to a great degree, but the algorithms used to process them have a major influence, too. Josephine, Curator of Papyri, used an analogy to explain the relation between the pictures and their processing: Taking the images is like grocery shopping. It determines what you can cook and is essential for the quality of your meal. Processing the pictures is, however, like the actual cooking: the cook’s skills are important, but the available ingredients set definite limits.
Now six years later, technology has advanced, and achieving optimal results has become a lot easier. For instance, in 2010 it was state-of-the-art to take 12 photos for a single leaf; now taking more than 30 images is becoming standard. Backlighting techniques have also radically improved, especially with the development of light-emitting paper that can be placed between the pages. This is why MOTB is initiating a new MSI project for Codex Climaci Rescriptus that makes use of the updated techniques available now. This time, chances are very good that it will finally become possible to optimally process all pages and, therefore, to decipher the underlying text on all of them. More text may be revealed this way, and we might eventually fully understand how the codex was put together.

Demonstration: results of multispectral imaging for Codex Climaci Rescriptus (© Museum of the Bible)
What Else Happened?
Apart from this manuscript’s “mysterious aura” that definitely caught me this week, I would also like to update you on a few other things that happened. On Monday, I met Dr. Christian Askeland, MOTB Scholars Initiative Associate Director, who is one of the most renowned scholars in the field of Coptic Studies. Before he started at MOTB, he worked at Kirche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel, and was a “Gastforscher” at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster. Christian and I had an interesting conversation about his studies, and he offered to give me some lessons in Coptic during my internship here. I gratefully took this opportunity since there are very early Christian writings that have survived only in this language. Further, Coptic is one of the first languages that the New Testament was translated into, which is why it plays an important role in its textual history.
I also completed my artifact handling training with Dr. Karen York, Chief Curator of Collections, by doing a hands-on test in the collection. Apart from this, I helped Brian Hyland, Associate Curator, confirm database information about Greek manuscripts. And I shadowed Herschel Hepler, Curator of Hebrew Manuscripts, and Rabbi Amedeo Spagnoletto, an expert on Torah scrolls, as they catalogued scrolls. It was absolutely amazing to see how Amedeo deduces features, like the age and origin of scrolls, just from examining their script.
In my next entry, I will review some of the work being done on papyri that MOTB is involved in. Stay tuned!
P.S.:
This weekend I attended service at First Church of the Nazarene in OKC together with Herschel, and Amedeo. Some things there were really peculiar from my point of view, for instance the huge screens on the walls saying, “Follow us on Twitter.” The real experience, however, was going to church with a rabbi. Amedeo seemed a bit reserved at first, but when he recognized that many of the worship songs the band was playing contained parts of psalms, he suddenly started singing every time he recognized a passage. The whole visit was a really interesting cultural experience (plus very good lunch afterwards).