The Austrian National Library (ÖNB) possesses a considerable number of Greek palimpsests. Many of the lower scripts and erased texts were studied and described during the general cataloguing of the Vienna Greek manuscripts in the 20th century, other palimpsests could only be examined in greater detail during the last two decades, thanks especially to new developments in image technology. Since 2001, several projects have undertaken a systematic analysis of the Greek palimpsests of the Austrian National Library with the aim to make them accessible to a larger public. This has resulted in new discoveries of several unique Ancient Greek and Byzantine texts.
Justinian codified Roman law in Latin, but in the East, Greek remained the preferred language in teaching and legal practice. Around 900, the Greek translations and summa-ries of and commentaries on Justinian’s legislation were consolidated in a single version, the Basilica. The Basilica are the most extensive corpus of Byzantine legislation. They are important for our knowledge of the origin and development of Byzantine law and for our understanding of the transition from a Latin to a Greek legal culture.
The genesis and early history of the Basilica are not entirely clear and their textual transmission is tenuous. What has come down to us is a collection in sixty books, sixteen of which have been lost and can only be reconstructed in part from testimonia. The books we have are mostly known in one or two manuscripts only. Any new witness is therefore most welcome. Since the Groningen edition by Scheltema c.s. new discoveries have increased our knowledge. The two palimpsests in the Austrian National Library (ANL/ÖNB) in Vienna are making an important contribution.
Since their discovery in 2003, several projects funded by the EU, the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Byzantine Research) and the Austrian Science Fund FWF and led by Otto Kresten have aimed at further revealing, deciphering and examining the legal texts hidden in the palimpsests of the ÖNB. The new Project “The Vienna Basilica Palimpsests“ (FWF PAT9022724) that is being carried out by Jana Grusková (Vienna/Bratislava) and Bernard H. Stolte (Groningen) at the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Abt. Byzanzforschung, IMAFO) and is funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. The project aims at the most complete decipherment possible (J. Grusková), edition and a comprehensive legal analysis (B. Stolte) of these two witnesses.
To render the erased and overwritten tenth- and eleventh-century Greek minuscule scripts visible, state-of-the-art non-invasive methods of digital recovery and material analysis have been applied in cooperation with the Austrian National Library (Katharina Kaska) and several technical and scientific teams.
The Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense (11th cent.)
The Codex ÖNB Hist. gr. 10 which comprises only 33 parchment folios in total, contains circa two thirds of the Life of John Chrysostom (BHG 875) written in two columns. This copy of the Life was produced in the late twelfth or the early thirteenth century. The manuscript came to the Imperial Court Library of the Habsburgs in the sixteenth century, through the manuscript collection of Johannes Sambucus. On 23 palimpsest folios of this book (fols. 9r–23v, 26r–33v), underneath the Greek minuscule of the Life, an unknown florilegium of the Basilica was discovered in 2003, during a systematic re-examination of all Greek palimpsests of the ÖNB. It was given the name Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense.
Palaeographical analysis has revealed that the text of the florilegium was written by two collaborating scribes, Hand A and Hand B, at the beginning (or in the first half) of the eleventh century. The extant part amounts to 46 manuscript pages in total. Several folios were reused upside down.
The Vienna florilegium contains full passages and shorter excerpts from the Basilica, Books 2, 3, 5–10, 16 and 19. In addition to the fact that we have no other witnesses for this anthology of the Basilica, the Vienna palimpsest is also unique in containing some passages of the lost Book 19. Besides, on most pages, copious scholia occur – an additional important source of historical information. The manuscript provides immediate invaluable insights into the legal praxis and the use of the Basilica in the eleventh century.
The text has been thoroughly erased and is largely covered by the new text of the Life which was written in bigger bold characters in black ink along and over the lines of the Basilica. Especially the small, rapid, cursive, heavily-abbreviated Hand B and the abbreviated scholia are enormously difficult to decipher, particularly in poorly legible, “noisy“ areas.
Special digital recovery of the palimpsest
Since 2003, non-invasive methods of digital recovery and material analysis have been applied in cooperation with the Austrian National Library and several technical and scientific teams to render the erased and overwritten script visible.
By 2024, up to 55% of the Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense (Cod. Hist. gr. 10) had been deciphered using special digital images created by the Fotoscientifica in the framework of the EU project “Rinascimento virtuale”.
In March 2025, the FWF project organized state-of-the-art multispectral imaging (MSI) at the ÖNB in cooperation with the Austrian National Library (ÖNB) and the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL) and a team of image scientist and engineers assembled by Michael Phelps, the Director of EMEL. All 46 palimpsest pages of the Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense (11th. cent.; Cod. Hist. gr. 10) – as well as 96 palimpsest pages of the 10th-century Basilica manuscript in the Codex ÖNB Suppl. gr. 200 – were imaged, using spectral reflective, fluorescence and transmissive modes. The monochrome MegaVision Q15 150MP constructed by Kenneth Boydston was used. He and Damianos Kasotakis captured the images which were subsequently processed, in close interaction with J. Grusková and B. Stolte, by the image scientists Roger L. Easton, Jr., and Keith T. Knox, who used various processing methods (such as principal component analysis, independent component analysis, and band ratios followed by pseudocolor rendering). The results varied on individual pages, even areas of a single page, from easily legible (see IMAGE) to less legible and illegible. The portions of the original characters covered by the new text remained obscured.
Hence, for problematic areas, other approaches were needed. X-ray fluorescence scanning turned out to be the most promising option. An incident beam of X-rays causes elements of the material to emit specific X-rays. The results can be translated into intensity maps for calcium, iron, copper, zinc etc.
Research Project Team:
Jana Grusková, Project leader (Austrian Academy of Sciences/Comenius University Bratislava)
Bernard H. Stolte (University of Groningen), Specialist in Byzantine law
Advisory Board (in alphabetical order):
Thomas van Bochove (Groningen), Giuseppe De Gregorio (Bologna),
Diether Roderich Reinsch (Berlin), Dieter Simon (Berlin), Nigel Wilson (Oxford)
Main Project Partner:
Austrian National Library
Katharina Kaska (Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books)
Christa Hofmann, Wolfgang Kreuzer (Institute for Conservation)
Digital Recovery Cooperation Partners:
Multispectral Imaging and Image Processing
• The Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL, California) Team:
Michael Phelps (Executive Director), Kenneth Boydston (MegaVision), Keith T. Knox, Roger L. Easton, Jr., Damianos Kasotakis
X-ray Fluorescence Imaging and Material Analysis
• Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), Universität Hamburg/
Exzellenzcluster “Understanding Written Artefacts“ (UWA):
Sebastian Bosch (Mobile Lab Manager), Grzegorz Nehring, Ivan Shevchuk
• Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, PETRA III, Beamline P24:
Martin Tolkiehn (Beamline Manager), Heiko Schulz-Ritter
Leif Glaser (Principal Investigator)
Based on previous research, this FWF project of the ÖAW – led by Otto Kresten and conducted by Jana Grusková in cooperation with external specialists (see below) – aims at recovering the cultural heritage hidden in the lower layers of selected codices of the Austrian National Library. Digital images of the palimpsest folios resulting from high-resolution multispectral capture and sophisticated processing – by the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL) from California and the Fotoscientifica from Parma (Kamerasystem RE.CO.RD) – enable scholars to read texts that have been invisible before. Five unique Greek textual witnesses of great importance are being examined in cooperation with foreign specialists. The research is being continued.
1) Aelius Herodianus, De prosodia catholica
The manuscript Hist. gr. 10 contains palimpsest fragments of the work De prosodia catholica on Greek accentuation by Aelius Herodianus (2nd cent. A.D.), one of the most important texts for the history of ancient Greek grammar, containing numerous quotations from ancient Greek authors. See "The Vienna Herodian Palimpsest".
2) Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense
The manuscript Hist. gr. 10 contains also twenty folios of an unknown florilegium of the Basilica, the most extensive legislation that existed in the Byzantine Empire. B. H. Stolte – J. Grusková, Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense (forthcoming).
3) Scythica Vindobonensia
The Scythica Vindobonensia are the new fragments on Gothic incursions into Roman provinces in the Balkans in the middle of the third century AD, preserved in the manuscript Hist. gr. 73. The fragments come most probably from the Scythica by the historian Dexippus of Athens. The work on and interpretation of this text which is of utmost historical importance is continued in the Project Scythica Vindobonensia. G. Martin – J. Grusková, ‚Scythica Vindobonensia‘ by Dexippus (?): New Fragments on Decius’ Gothic Wars. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 54 (2014) 728–754 (with Figg. 1–4); J. Grusková – G. Martin, Ein neues Textstück aus den "Scythica Vindobonensia" zu den Ereignissen nach der Eroberung von Philippopolis. Tyche 29 (2014) 29–43 (mit Tafeln 12–15) (doi); J. Grusková – G. Martin, Zum Angriff der Goten unter Kniva auf eine thrakische Stadt (Scythica Vindobonensia, f. 195v). Tyche 30 (2015) 35–53 (mit Tafeln 9–11) (doi)
4)Eusebii Chronici fragmentum Vindobonense
A bifolium that may have belonged to a direct copy of the otherwise lost Greek original of the Chronicle of Eusebius has survived as palimpsest in the manuscript Iur. gr. 18. J. Grusková, Zur Textgeschichte der Weltchronik des Eusebios zwischen Okzident und Orient (Eusebii Chronici fragmentum Vindobonense – ein neues griechisches Handschriftenfragment), in: Byzanz und das Abendland. Budapest 2013, 43–51; J. Grusková – O. Gengler, The Vienna Greek Palimpsest of the Chronicon of Eusebius (Codex Vind. Iur. gr. 18) (forthcoming).
5) Vienna palimpsest of the legend of St. George
Of great importance are the majuscule fragments of a very old version of the legend of St. George in the Vienna manuscript lat. 954. E. Gamillscheg – J. Grusková, Zum Wiener Palimpsest der Georgslegende (BHG 670). Codices Manuscripti (in preparation).
In addition to palimpsests in Vienna, the project also engages in further analysis of the palimpsest fragments of De cerimoniis aulae Byzantinae (Athous Vatop. 1003 and Chalc. S. Trinitatis 133 (125)), the work attributed to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. See O. Kresten – M. Featherstone – J. Grusková, Studien zu den Palimpsestfragmenten des sogenannten „Zeremonienbuches“ II. Codex Vatopedinus 1003 (mit Tafeln) (forthcoming).
Within the research focus “Greek palimpsests of the ANL”, other Vienna manuscripts are also examined, among them worthy mentioning are: Homilies by Gregor of Nazianz in mss Suppl. gr. 59 and Suppl. gr. 189 (V. Somers, J. Grusková); fragments of the Basilica in ms Suppl. gr. 200 (B. Stolte, J. Grusková); fragments of the Vita BHG 884 of John of Damascus in ms Phil. gr. 158 (R. Volk, E. Lamberz); Fragments of a homiletic and hagiographical collection in ms Phil. gr. 158 (E. Lamberz, O. Kresten, J. Grusková); Trophaea Damasci in ms Phil. gr. 286 (B. Campos); Diodorus of Tarsus, Commentary on Psalms in ms Theol. gr. 177 (O. Kresten, J. Grusková); fragment of a juridical text in the former fly-leaves (Blotius-Signatur 1536) of the ms Theol. gr. 238 (B. Stolte, J. Grusková). An important contribution towards the recovery of these texts are the new images created by the image scientists of Centre of Image and Material Analysis in Cultural Heritage of the Technical University of Vienna.
