Exploring the Syriac Galen Palimpsest

Over the last decade, scientists and humanities scholars have been involved in a collaborative effort to decipher the Syriac Galen Palimpsest, a unique manuscript containing the Syriac translation of Galen’s pharmacological treatise On Simple Drugs. In this truly transdisciplinary meeting, the speakers will showcase recent breakthroughs in deciphering this palimpsest by developing new methods in digital philology and imaging. They will highlight the important contribution of Middle Eastern Christians to the development of medicine, and demonstrate how their research is leading to a paradigm shift in revealing and understanding erased texts that remained unreadable to previous generations.

Convenors:
Dr Naima Afif, University of Manchester
Professor Siam Bhayro, University of Exeter
Professor Peter E Pormann, University of Manchester
Professor William I Sellers, University of Manchester
Dr Natalia Smelova, University of Manchester

Speakers include:
Professor Uwe Bergmann, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory / Stanford University, USA
Dr Véronique Boudon-Millot, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France
Dr Sebastian P Brock FBA, University of Oxford
Dr Mark Dickinson, University of Manchester
Professor John Healey FBA, University of Manchester
Dr Fabian Käs, University of Cologne, Germany
Dr Grigory Kessel, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria / University of Manchester
Dr Matteo Martelli, Università di Bologna, Italy
Dr Caroline Petit, University of Warwick
Dr Abigail Quandt, The Walters Art Museum, USA
Dr Lucia Raggetti, Università di Bologna, Italy
Michael Toth, RB Toth Associates, USA
Professor John Wilkins, University of Exeter

A programme is available.

Registration
This conference will take place at the John Rylands Library, part of the University of Manchester. Registration is free, but booking is required. To sign up, please email [email protected].