Editing Palimpsest (section)

{{Short description|Reused manuscript with visible prior text}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Codex ephremi (The S.S. Teacher's Edition-The Holy Bible - Plate XXIV).jpg|thumb|350px|The [[Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus]], a Greek manuscript of the Bible from the 5th century, is a palimpsest.]]

In [[textual studies]], a '''palimpsest''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|l|ɪ|m|p|s|ɛ|s|t}}) is a [[manuscript]] page, either from a [[scroll (parchment)|scroll]] or a [[book]], from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/palimpsest] palimpsest definitions</ref> in the form of another document.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lyons|first1=Martyn|title=Books: A Living History|date=2011|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|location=California|isbn=978-1-60606-083-4|page=215}}</ref> [[Parchment]] was made of lamb, calf, or [[goat|kid]] skin and was expensive and not readily available, so, in the interest of economy, a page was often re-used by scraping off the previous writing. In colloquial usage, the term ''palimpsest'' is also used in [[architecture]], [[archaeology]] and [[geomorphology]] to denote an object made or worked upon for one purpose and later reused for another; for example, a [[monumental brass]] the reverse blank side of which has been re-engraved.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Page-Phillips|first1=John|title= Palimpsests - the backs of monumental brasses|date=1980}}</ref>