Christian Høgel and Aglae Pizzone from CML awarded Carlsberg Infrastructure Grant

Professor Christian Høgel and Professor Aglae Pizzone from the Center of Excellence CML at the University of Southern Denmark have been awarded a Carlsberg infrastructure grant for the project ”Infrastructure for multi- and hyperspectral image acquisition.” With this grant, they hope to get access to previously hidden material in medieval manuscripts while still preserving it. 

Manuscripts from the Middle Ages are far from static. They were created with several layers added on to each other, but over time, these layers have been blurred and erased. Now, through an imaging technology it is possible to access these hidden passages.

Professor Christian Høgel and Professor Aglae Pizzone, from the Center for Medieval Literature (CML) at the University of Southern Denmark, have been awarded a Carlsberg infrastructure grant of 788.574 kr. for the project ”Infrastructure for multi- and hyperspectral image acquisition.”

Multi- and hyperspectral imaging

The project will focus on manuscripts from the medieval and to the early modern period, a time when new material was added to existing older manuscripts. One out of five books from the 16th and 17th centuries hides fragments that now can be recovered.

The technology of multi- and hyperspectral imaging (MSI and HSI) will make it possible to find these new layers in the manuscripts. HSI and MSI use specific wavelengths, such as ultra-violet and near-infrared, to capture otherwise faded or obscured texts.

Read more about the project from CML at SDU here

More information about the grant from the Carlsberg Foundation here