News & Events

  • Chemistry Lasers Identify Pigments in Medieval Manuscripts

    February 14, 2025
    Medieval manuscript from Rauner Library

    In partnership with Rauner Special Collections Library - and with the help and expertise of Instrument Core Facility Manager Paul Defino and Instrument Specialist Chris Snyder of the Chemistry Department - senior lecturer Jenny Lynn is embarking on an exciting scholarly investigation. Jenny arranged for Paul and Chris to co-conduct multiple experiments to identify pigments (and so their compounds) in several of Rauner Library's pre-1600 manuscript fragments using Raman spectroscopy. This technique uses a source of monochromatic light, usually a laser, to determine a sample's molecular makeup.

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  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? The Clay of the Pylos Tablets

    January 21, 2025
    Linear B tablet clay closeup

    Congratulations to Professor Julie Hruby on the publication of her article in the Proceedings of the 15th International Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? The Clay of the Pylos Tablets,". The article discusses Professor Hruby's and Dimitri Nakassis's research into the question of whether Linear B clay tablets were recycled (clay broken down and made into new tablets), or made from fresh clay.

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  • Latin Palaeography and The Waste Parchment Project

    August 15, 2024
    Codicology with Tim Baker

    Latin 10.04 Latin Manuscripts and Palaeography was a hands-on introduction to manuscript studies in which students learned to read the most important scripts that preserve Latin texts of all kinds in manuscripts written from the first century BC to the sixteenth century AD. With the help of many generous guest lecturers, we also learned that there is more to manuscript studies than palaeography, and more to a manuscript than the text it preserves...

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