«Total Eclipse of the Text». Stories of Palimpsests in Verona, Ravenna and Bobbio between Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages

What happens when texts are lost after losing their identity (both as texts and books)? To answer this question, we need to focus on palimpsests. Mainly placed at the border between Antiquity and Middle Ages, palimpsests (better known as codices rescripti) are still viewed as the culprits of the demise of classical culture and civilization. This paper examines several re-used manuscripts (both as codices and fragments), usually related to the earliest activity of the Bobbio scriptorium, in order to ascertain the correct origin of these multifaceted specimens. In fact, many of them seem to have arrived at Bobbio from Verona, where the local cathedral (at least since the 6th century A.D.) worked like a real hub of late antique manuscripts, that were collected from many cities across northern Italy (especially Ravenna)