Natalie Tchernetska

My main research interests are in the area of Greek palimpsests and Greek manuscripts of Oriental origin. Both are important witnesses for the evolution of Greek script, for manuscript production and circulation, but have been often neglected. There are two parts of my research project for IEA. First, I will continue my work on the so-called Archimedes Palimpsest. This 13th century manuscripts preserves in its lower layer three groups of unique Classical texts: seven treatises of Archimedes, two speeches of Hyperides, and a commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias to the Categories of Aristotle. I will work on the latter jointly with M.Rashed, with the view of deciphering and preparing this important philosophical text, which had been considered lost, for publication. I will also investigate events of the most mysterious part of the Archimedes Palimpsest history, the Parisian period (from the 1930s to 1998), during which the Palimpsest was badly damaged and embellished with false miniatures. Second, I will continue my research on Greek manuscripts of Oriental origin, especially those brought from Sinai in the 19th century and now kept in various libraries across Europe. I have been working on the collection of C. Tischendorf, dispersed between five libraries, for several years. While in IEA, I will extend my investigation to the collection of his contemporaries and competitors P. Ouspensky and A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus. This investigation would contribute to the understanding of the Greek written culture in the Greek-speaking Near East, which played a key role in the transmission of the Greek texts in the 6th-8th centuries.