December 5, 2010

21st-Century Imaging Helps Scholars Reveal Rare 8th-Century Manuscript

Cutting-Edge Imaging Helps Scholar Reveal 8th-Century Manuscript 1

Courtesy The Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral

Image of St. Luke in the St. Chad Gospels

Enlarge Image

By Jennifer Howard

In medieval times, Lichfield, England, was a thriving cultural and religious center. As time marched on, though, modern innovations left it behind. The canals of the 18th century, the railroads of the 19th, and the highways of the 20th all passed it by.

Now a literary scholar and a computer scientist from the University of Kentucky have brought 21st-century digital imaging to Lichfield, to study and help preserve one of its most ancient treasures: the eighth-century illustrated