Editing Palimpsest (section)

== Development ==

Because [[parchment]] prepared from animal hides is far more durable than [[paper]] or [[papyrus]], most palimpsests known to modern scholars are parchment, which rose in popularity in [[Western Europe]] after the 6th century. Where papyrus was in common use, reuse of writing media was less common because papyrus was cheaper and more expendable than costly parchment. Some papyrus palimpsests do survive, and Romans referred to this custom of washing papyrus.{{NoteTag|According to [[Suetonius]], [[Augustus]], "though he began a tragedy with great zest, becoming dissatisfied with the style, he obliterated the whole; and his friends saying to him, What is your Ajax doing? He answered, My Ajax met with a sponge." (''Augustus'', 85). Cf. a letter of the future emperor [[Marcus Aurelius]] to his friend and teacher [[Marcus Cornelius Fronto|Fronto]] (''ad M. Caesarem'', 4.5), in which the former, dissatisfied with a piece of his own writing, facetiously exclaims that he will "consecrate it to water (''lymphis'') or fire (''Volcano'')," i.e. that he will rub out or burn what he has written.}}

The writing was washed from parchment or [[vellum]] using milk and [[oat bran]]. With the passing of time, the faint remains of the former writing would reappear enough so that scholars can discern the text (called the {{Lang|la|scriptio inferior}}, the 'underwriting') and decipher it. In the later [[Middle Ages]] the surface of the vellum was usually scraped away with powdered [[pumice]], irretrievably losing the writing; hence the most valuable palimpsests are those that were overwritten in the early Middle Ages.

Medieval [[codex|codices]] are constructed in "gathers" which are folded (compare [[wikt:folio|''folio'']], 'leaf, page' [[ablative case]] of [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|folium}}), then stacked together like a newspaper and sewn together at the fold. Prepared parchment sheets retained their original central fold, so each was ordinarily cut in half, making a [[quarto]] volume of the original folio, with the overwritten text running perpendicular to the effaced text.