The palimpsest documents of Santa Sofia di Benevento (11th century) studied through the “Imaging multispectral”

Abstract

Although the palimpsests codes are not longer a rarity, the rescripti documents are still very rare. It was the practice of reusing parchments already written, then erased and subjected to a particular treatment, for the purpose of recycling for the preparation of a new document. The study in question examines the parchments of Santa Sofia di Benevento and the conspicuous dossier consisting of documents concerning the monastery of Sant’Angelo di Ariano. The membranes examined for this study are twenty-two (twenty-one have double palimpsests, while one is triple), for a total of forty-five documents, all relating to the eleventh century. The new multispectral imaging technique has allowed the identification of new occurrences relating to the sofiano parchment background, through the experimentation of multispectral digital photography and the digital manipulation of dissected images, able to bring out, in their clarity, the traces of the writings no longer visible either to the naked eye, or through the classic use of the Wood Lamp; this new photographic technique allows the isolation and separation of one or more levels of writing.