All texts are palimpsests of earlier texts; there's been nothing new under the sun since Plato and Aristotle and they weren't new either; everything belongs to everybody.

Under an agreement between the monastery and the California-based Early Manuscripts Electronic Library, researchers hope to spend five years peeping beneath the palimpsests.

The ever-growing ability to decipher palimpsests is perhaps the most exciting way in which modern technology is throwing light on the role of the written word during the dark ages.