Johns Hopkins University Press
Fig 1. True color (unprocessed) representations of the Ricardus Dialogue (a) and the Cary Palimpsest (b), both captured using an MSI system. Note the extensive staining in the middle and bottom regions of the Ricardus and the faint traces of palimpsested text in the Cary fragment, slightly more apparent at the margins of the page where mechanical constraints prevented the parchment from being scraped away as thinly as it is in the center. A sense of the size of the original manuscript containing Pope Leo the Great's Sermo can be gleaned from noting the double columns of text, the large size of the letterforms, and their abrupt cutoff at the bottom of the page. Faintly visible in the bottom right corner of the Ricardus Dialogue and the far right portion of the stained center region are the two early modern inscriptions which as yet have been only partially recovered. The rubricated initials indicate the two speakers. Red underlining indicates quotations from the Bible. Here and throughout, images of the Ricardus Dialogue (University of Rochester, Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, D.460 1000–003) are reproduced courtesy of University of Rochester, Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation; images of the Cary Palimpsest are reproduced courtesy of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Cary Graphic Arts Collection.
Fig 1.

True color (unprocessed) representations of the Ricardus Dialogue (a) and the Cary Palimpsest (b), both captured using an MSI system. Note the extensive staining in the middle and bottom regions of the Ricardus and the faint traces of palimpsested text in the Cary fragment, slightly more apparent at the margins of the page where mechanical constraints prevented the parchment from being scraped away as thinly as it is in the center. A sense of the size of the original manuscript containing Pope Leo the Great's Sermo can be gleaned from noting the double columns of text, the large size of the letterforms, and their abrupt cutoff at the bottom of the page. Faintly visible in the bottom right corner of the Ricardus Dialogue and the far right portion of the stained center region are the two early modern inscriptions which as yet have been only partially recovered. The rubricated initials indicate the two speakers. Red underlining indicates quotations from the Bible. Here and throughout, images of the Ricardus Dialogue (University of Rochester, Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, D.460 1000–003) are reproduced courtesy of University of Rochester, Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation; images of the Cary Palimpsest are reproduced courtesy of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Cary Graphic Arts Collection.

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