How to Read an Invisible Classic

Abstract

What if there were a technology to recover these lost and unknown texts? Imagine worldwide how a trove of hundreds of thousands of previously unreadable and unknown works could change our knowledge of the past! What new classics would we discover that could rewrite the canons of literature, history, music, mathematics, philosophy, political science? Or more provocatively, how could they rewrite our cultural identities, building new bridges between cultures and people? Gregory Heyworth is associate professor of English at the University of Mississippi. He is a medievalist and founder of the discipline of textual science. Professor Heyworth directs the Lazarus Project, a not-for-profit initiative to restore damaged and illegible cultural heritage objects, especially manuscripts and maps, using spectral imaging technology. He has helped recover numerous important objects including the Vercelli Book and the 1491 Martellus Map. Currently he is working on a project to recover the manuscript fragments of the lost Cathedral Library of Chartres, France, bombed in WWII