Pal.lat.24

Testo del curatore

Pal. lat. 24 includes several Biblical books of the Old Testament (Tobias, Judith, Job, Esther). It was initially copied in an Uncial script in 22 long lines per page in the seventh or eighth century. The writing surface of this original manuscript seems to have been entirely made up of nine recycled Latin manuscripts and a Greek one ranging from the fourth to the sixth century. Soon after its production (8th c.), probably already at Lorsch, this manuscript was restored and its missing texts were copied on brand-new parchment (ff. 1-8, 17-37, 54-71) by another Uncial hand. The long lines vary from 17-21 per page, and each page currently measures 110 × 85 mm. It found its way to the Palatine Library at Heidelberg whence it arrived to the Vatican Library in 1623. Pal. lat. 24 is the earliest testimony of palimpsest research in the Vatican Library due to the discovery of its Livy palimpsest in 1772. Shortly after the discovery of its other recycled folios, Pal. lat. 24 was treated with chemical reagents to facilitate the reading of its earlier texts by the Danish scholar and diplomat, Barthold Georg Niebuhr before Angelo Mai’s arrival to the Vatican Library. With ten different recycled manuscripts, Pal. lat. 24 includes the highest number of palimpsests in the Vatican Library. The separate folios of this manuscript are conserved in cardboard folders.

Bibliography