NEW YORK TIMES: Medicine’s Hidden Roots in an Ancient Manuscript

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“On so many levels it’s important,” said Peter Pormann, a Graeco-Arabic expert at the University of Manchester who now leads a study of the text.

The manuscript held by Dr. Kessel that day was a palimpsest: older text covered up by newer writing. It was a common practice centuries ago, a medieval form of recycling. In this case, 11th-century Syrian scribes had scraped away Galen’s medical text and had overwritten hymns on the parchment.

The hymn book itself is of interest, but for now it is the original text, all but invisible to the naked eye and known as the undertext, that has captured the imagination of scholars.