E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Pa’limpsest.
A parchment on which the original writing has been effaced, and something else has been written. (Greek, palin, again; psao, I rub or efface.) When parchment was not supplied in sufficient quantities, the monks and others used to wash or rub out the writing in a parchment and use it again. As they did not wash or rub it out entirely, many works have been recovered by modern ingenuity. Thus Cicero’s De Republica has been restored; it was partially erased to make room for a commentary of St. Augustine on the Psalms. Of course St. Augustine’s commentary was first copied, then erased from the parchment, and the original MS. of Cicero made its appearance.
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“Central Asia is a palimpsest; everywhere actual barbarism overlays a by gone civilisation”—The Times.
