Abstract: Writing, erasing, rewriting. In the ancient and medieval world, the reuse of writing media was a constant habit; this is testified to not only by direct sources (wooden and wax tablets, opisthographic papyri, palimpsest scrolls) but also by the lexicon of literary and documentary texts. This contribution, without any ambition to be exhaustive, discusses some of these references (from Plutarch to Geoffrey Chaucer, via Cicero and the chronicles of the Abbey of Saint Gall) specifically related to ‘erasure’, aiming to identify recurring themes, similarities, and differences across the time period from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
Ammirati, S. (2025). Some Remarks on the Lexicon of Erasure between Antiquity and Middle Ages. In M. Cammarosano (a cura di), Erasing and Rewriting in Manuscript Cultures: Practices of Text Obliteration and Manuscript Reuse in a Global Perspective (pp. 255-263). Berlin, Boston : De Gruyter Brill [10.1515/9783111682983].
Some Remarks on the Lexicon of Erasure between Antiquity and Middle Ages
Ammirati, Serena
2025-01-01
Abstract
Abstract: Writing, erasing, rewriting. In the ancient and medieval world, the reuse of writing media was a constant habit; this is testified to not only by direct sources (wooden and wax tablets, opisthographic papyri, palimpsest scrolls) but also by the lexicon of literary and documentary texts. This contribution, without any ambition to be exhaustive, discusses some of these references (from Plutarch to Geoffrey Chaucer, via Cicero and the chronicles of the Abbey of Saint Gall) specifically related to ‘erasure’, aiming to identify recurring themes, similarities, and differences across the time period from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
