A biological reading of a palimpsest

Laura C. Viñas-Caron; Ismael Rodríguez Palomo; Natasha Fazlic; Jiří Vnouček; Matthew Driscoll; Sarah Fiddyment; Matthew J. Collins

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106786

A biological reading of a palimpsest

Laura C. Viñas-Caron^*, Ismael Rodríguez Palomo, Natasha Fazlic, Jiří Vnouček, Matthew Driscoll, Sarah Fiddyment, Matthew J. Collins

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

In the Middle Ages, texts were recorded and preserved on parchment, an animal-
derived material. When this resource was scarce, older manuscripts were some-
times recycled to write new manuscripts. In the process, the ancient text was
erased, creating what is known as a palimpsest. Here, we explore the potential
of peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), widely applied to identify species, to
help reconnect the dispersed leaves of a manuscript and reveal differences in
parchment manufacturing. In combination with visual methods, we analyzed a
whole palimpsest, the codex AM 795 4to from the Arnamagnæan Collection (Co-
penhagen, Denmark). We find that both sheep and goat skins were used in this
manuscript, and that parchment differed in quality. Notably, the PMF analysis
distinguished five groups of folios which match the visual groupings. We conclude
that this detailed interrogation of a single mass spectrum can be a promising tool
to understand how palimpsest manuscripts were constructed.

Original language	English
Article number	106786
Journal	iScience
Volume	26
Issue number	6
Number of pages	12
ISSN	2589-0042
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106786
Publication status	Published - 2023

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Cite this

@article{6d888f3252ff4c5792c8612e29ac6416,

title = "A biological reading of a palimpsest",

abstract = "In the Middle Ages, texts were recorded and preserved on parchment, an animal-derived material. When this resource was scarce, older manuscripts were some-times recycled to write new manuscripts. In the process, the ancient text waserased, creating what is known as a palimpsest. Here, we explore the potentialof peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), widely applied to identify species, tohelp reconnect the dispersed leaves of a manuscript and reveal differences inparchment manufacturing. In combination with visual methods, we analyzed awhole palimpsest, the codex AM 795 4to from the Arnamagn{\ae}an Collection (Co-penhagen, Denmark). We find that both sheep and goat skins were used in thismanuscript, and that parchment differed in quality. Notably, the PMF analysisdistinguished five groups of folios which match the visual groupings. We concludethat this detailed interrogation of a single mass spectrum can be a promising toolto understand how palimpsest manuscripts were constructed.",

author = "Vi{\~n}as-Caron, {Laura C.} and Palomo, {Ismael Rodr{\'i}guez} and Natasha Fazlic and Ji{\v r}{\'i} Vnou{\v c}ek and Matthew Driscoll and Sarah Fiddyment and Collins, {Matthew J.}",

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T1 - A biological reading of a palimpsest

AU - Viñas-Caron, Laura C.

AU - Palomo, Ismael Rodríguez

AU - Fazlic, Natasha

AU - Vnouček, Jiří

AU - Driscoll, Matthew

AU - Fiddyment, Sarah

AU - Collins, Matthew J.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - In the Middle Ages, texts were recorded and preserved on parchment, an animal-derived material. When this resource was scarce, older manuscripts were some-times recycled to write new manuscripts. In the process, the ancient text waserased, creating what is known as a palimpsest. Here, we explore the potentialof peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), widely applied to identify species, tohelp reconnect the dispersed leaves of a manuscript and reveal differences inparchment manufacturing. In combination with visual methods, we analyzed awhole palimpsest, the codex AM 795 4to from the Arnamagnæan Collection (Co-penhagen, Denmark). We find that both sheep and goat skins were used in thismanuscript, and that parchment differed in quality. Notably, the PMF analysisdistinguished five groups of folios which match the visual groupings. We concludethat this detailed interrogation of a single mass spectrum can be a promising toolto understand how palimpsest manuscripts were constructed.

AB - In the Middle Ages, texts were recorded and preserved on parchment, an animal-derived material. When this resource was scarce, older manuscripts were some-times recycled to write new manuscripts. In the process, the ancient text waserased, creating what is known as a palimpsest. Here, we explore the potentialof peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), widely applied to identify species, tohelp reconnect the dispersed leaves of a manuscript and reveal differences inparchment manufacturing. In combination with visual methods, we analyzed awhole palimpsest, the codex AM 795 4to from the Arnamagnæan Collection (Co-penhagen, Denmark). We find that both sheep and goat skins were used in thismanuscript, and that parchment differed in quality. Notably, the PMF analysisdistinguished five groups of folios which match the visual groupings. We concludethat this detailed interrogation of a single mass spectrum can be a promising toolto understand how palimpsest manuscripts were constructed.

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