One of the oldest libraries in the world is also one of the most remote, located at the Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai Desert. Within fortress-like walls at the base of Mount Sinai is a trove of handwritten manuscripts in ancient languages, including many that were scrubbed off and overwritten. Michael B. Toth, president of R.B. Toth Associates, discusses how he led teams of technical experts, scientists, and scholars in studies of these palimpsests with their layers of text. Toth details how they used advanced imaging systems in such an isolated spot amid political and security risks to reveal the hidden undertexts in collaboration with the monastery archbishop and monks.
As a result of the teams’ work, images of the monastery’s texts are now available online for digital research. Toth delves into how global access has allowed the digital reunification of manuscript folios from different libraries.
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