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Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.
獨白:聽下面一段藝術歷史的課堂演講
Professor:Now in Europe in the Middle Ages before the invention of printing and the printing press, all books, all manual scripts were hand-made.
教授:在歐洲中世紀時期，在印刷術發(fā)明之前，所有的書、手稿都是手工制作的。
And the material typically used for the pages was parchment, which is animal skin that stretched and dried under tension, so it become s really fat and can be written on.
而書頁主要是用羊皮紙來制作的，這是一種將動物的皮拉伸并在拉力之下使之干燥，所以它就變得很易排版面并能在上面寫字。
During the 1400s, when printing was being developed, paper became the predominant material for books in Europe, but prior to that, it was parchment.
在 15 世紀，印刷術得到發(fā)展的時期，紙張變成歐洲主要制作書籍的材料，但是在那之前，是羊皮紙。
Parchment is durable, much more so than paper, and it could be reused which came in handy since it was a costly material and in short supply.
羊皮紙很耐用，比紙張耐用很多，而且可以重新使用，這就變得很便利，因為羊皮紙是很貴的材料而且供應緊張。
So it wasn't uncommon for the scribes or monks who produce the manual scripts.
因此對于那些寫手稿的抄寫員或者和尚來講，使用就不是很普遍。
Ah, remember before printing books were made mainly in monasteries.
啊，記得在印刷術發(fā)明之前，書籍基本都是在修道院制作的吧。
Well, the scribes often recycled the parchment that'd been used for earlier manual scripts.
呃，抄寫員經(jīng)常重新使用之前抄寫手稿時用過的羊皮紙。他們就將羊皮紙上的墨跡擦拭掉，然后再在上面寫上新的東西。
They simply erased the ink off the parchment and wrote something new in its place a manual script page that was written on, erased and then used again is called a palimpsest.
這種被書寫過，再經(jīng)過擦拭后重新使用的手稿叫做重寫本。
Palimpsests were created, well, we know about two methods that were used for removing ink from parchment.
重寫本是通過，呃，我們知道兩種方式來對羊皮紙進行墨跡擦除。
In the late Middle Ages, it was customary to scrape away the surface of the parchment with an abrasive, which completely wiped out any writing that was there.
在中世紀晚期，人們習慣用一種研磨料來對羊皮紙表面進行擦拭，這種方式能完成擦掉上面的墨跡。
But earlier in the Middle Ages, the original ink was usually removed by washing the used parchment with milk.
但是在中世紀早期，羊皮紙上面墨跡的擦拭通常是用牛奶來洗。
That removed the ink.
這能移除羊皮紙上面的墨跡，
But with the passing of time, the original writing might reappear.
但是過一段時間，早先的字跡可能會重新顯示出來。
In fact, it might reappear to the extent that scholars could make out an even decipher, the original text.
事實上，甚至到了一種程度，就是學者可以分辨住原始版本的密文。
Perhaps, the most famous example is the Archimedes' palimpsest.
也許，最出名的例子就是阿基米德的重寫本。
Archimedes lived in Greece around 200 BCE, and as you probably know, he's considered one of the greatest Mathematicians who ever lived, even though , many of his writings had been lost , including what many now think to be his most important work called The Method.
阿基米德在大約公元前 200 年前居住與希臘，你們可能知道，他被看做是亙古以來最出色的數(shù)學家之一，即便他多數(shù)的手稿都已經(jīng)丟失，包括我們現(xiàn)在認為的他最重要的成就，稱之為方法論。
But in 1998, a book of prayers from the Middle Ages sold in an art auction for a lot of money, more money than anyone would pay for a damaged book from the 12th century. Beautiful or not, why?
但是在 1998 年的一個藝術拍賣會上，一本中世紀的祈禱書被高價拍賣，比任何一本 12 世紀的受損書籍的價格都要高。很神奇吧，為什么呢？
It had been discovered that the book was a palimpsest, and beneath the surface writing on the manual script laid, guess what?
原來這本書被發(fā)現(xiàn)是一本重寫本，在手稿字跡的下面，猜猜是什么？
Mathematical theorems and diagrams from Archimedes.
是阿基米德的數(shù)學理論和圖解。
Archimedes' writings were originally done on papyrus scrolls.
阿基米德最初的字是寫在紙莎草卷軸上面的。
Then in the10th century, a scribe made a copy on parchment of some of his texts and diagrams including, as it turns out the Method.
然后在 10 世紀，一個抄寫員將他的附圖的文章都抄寫在羊皮紙的上面，這就是方法論。
This was extremely fortunate, since later on, the original papyrus scrolls disappeared.
這簡直是非常幸運，因為后來，這個紙莎草卷軸丟失了。
About 200 years later in the 12th century, this parchment manual script became a palimpsest when a scribe used the parchment to make a prayer book.
大約在200 年后的 12 世紀，這個羊皮紙手抄稿變成了一個重寫本，因為一個抄寫員用這張羊皮紙制作成了祈禱書。
So the pages, the pieces of parchment themselves, had been preserved.
那么書頁，一張張羊皮紙就被留存下來。
But the Archimedes' text was erased and written over, and no one knew it existed.
但是阿基米德的文本已經(jīng)被擦除并已經(jīng)重新寫上了字，所以沒有人知道它的存在。
It wasn't until 1906 that a scholar came across the prayer book in a library and realized it was a palimpsest, and that the underlying layer of texts could only have come from Archimedes.
直到 1906 年，一位學者來到圖書館偶然看到這本祈禱書，并意識到了這是本重寫本，而下面藏匿的內(nèi)容僅有可能是來自阿基米德。
That was when his work The Method was discovered for the first time.
這時他的方法論首次被發(fā)現(xiàn)。
Um... the palimpsest then went through some more tough times, but eventually it ended up in an art auction where was bought and then donated to an art museum in Baltimore, for conservation and study.
嗯，重寫本經(jīng)歷了風風雨雨，最終到了藝術拍賣會上，然后被人買到又被捐贈到了巴爾的摩的藝術博物館，來進行保護和鉆研。
To avoid further damage to the manual script, the research team at the art museum has had to be extremely selective in their techniques they used to see the original writing.
為避免手稿遭到更多的破壞，藝術博物館研究隊伍的人員在想看原始字跡時采用的技術需要及其的謹慎。
They've used ultraviolet light and some other techniques, and if you're interested in that sort of thing, you can learn more about it in an art conservation class.
他們使用過紫外線以及一些其它技術，如果你們對這個感興趣的話，可以學習一下藝術保護課程。
But actually, it was a physicist who came up with a method that was a breakthrough. He realized that the iron in the ancient ink would display if exposed to a certain X-ray imaging method, and except for small portions of the text that couldn't be deciphered, this technique's been very helpful in seeing Archimedes 'texts and drawings through the medieval over writing.
但是實際上， 是一位物理學家想出的方法有了突破。他意識到古墨水中的鐵會在一定的 X 光影像處理方法中顯露出來，除了一小部分的內(nèi)容還沒有被破解，這項技術通過中世紀的重寫本對我們看阿基米德的文章和圖解及其大的有幫助。
