Newly Recovered Speeches of Hyperides
Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:22 pm
The Independent had an article yesterday about a tenth century parchment book which was GÇ£erasedGÇ¥ (with lemon juice) and written over in the 13th century. Then, in the 20th century, a forger added illustrations to GÇ£add value,GÇ¥ further damaging the original works. This parchment was bought by a private collector in 1998 and then loaned to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Using X-ray fluorescence they have been able to make out the 10th century works and have been working on this for the past eight years. Apparently there are many pages and the work is particularly time-intensive.
Other recent publicity is to be found online, but almost all of the enthusiasm about the parchment or Palimpsest (as it is known) is about recovered works of Archimedes. Here, however, is something of interest to Pothosians:
Best regards,
Other recent publicity is to be found online, but almost all of the enthusiasm about the parchment or Palimpsest (as it is known) is about recovered works of Archimedes. Here, however, is something of interest to Pothosians:
The webpage The Scholarship of the Palimpest has slightly different information, but apparently new pages are still being deciphered and the information in the press release may be more recent than that found on the project website.Dr Noel said that the eight years of work that has been undertaken on the palimpsest has also revealed other ancient texts. Among these is a speech made by Hyperides, an Athenian orator in the 4th century BC and a contemporary of Aristotle and Demostenes.
"It is a speech, probably made in 338BC, at the twilight of the Athenian age of democracy. It concerns Athenian reaction to their loss of a battle against Phillip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great," Dr Noel said. In 338BC, the father and son defeated Athens and Thebes.
Either way these new findings are of speeches previously lost to us, and I think this news is most exciting. If only they could find some lost books on Alexander this way!The remaining pages are currently being studied: the folio 136/137 appears to come from the political speech Against Diondas, in which Hyperides defends his proposal to honor the rhetor Demosthenes prior to the battle of Chaeronea; 144/145 also refers to Philip and may come from the same political speech.
Best regards,