10.10.2022

Ancient Gods in the Monastery Library

The magazine "Spektrum der Wissenschaften" reports on the discoveries of Claudia Rapp and Giulia Rossetto in the Sinai monastery

Several unique discoveries were made as part of the project led by Prof. Claudia Rapp, interim director of the Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, to digitize the palimpsests (reused parchment manuscripts) in the library of the St Catherine Monastery near Mount Sinai, founded in the 6th century CE. The identification of previously unknown lines from an ancient epic about the god Dionysus by Giulia Rossetto from the Department for Byzantine Research was particularly spectacular. Together with the technical expert Damianos Kasotakis, our colleagues report on their groundbreaking research in the October issue of the magazine "Spektrum der Wissenschaften".