0:00:00.760,0:00:03.456
On January 26, 2013,

0:00:03.480,0:00:06.976
a band of al-Qaeda militants[br]entered the ancient city of Timbuktu

0:00:07.000,0:00:09.000
on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.

0:00:09.640,0:00:14.256
There, they set fire to a medieval library[br]of 30,000 manuscripts

0:00:14.280,0:00:17.056
written in Arabic[br]and several African languages

0:00:17.080,0:00:22.816
and ranging in subject from astronomy[br]to geography, history to medicine,

0:00:22.840,0:00:24.536
including one book which records

0:00:24.560,0:00:28.480
perhaps the first treatment[br]for male erectile dysfunction.

0:00:29.760,0:00:31.056
Unknown in the West,

0:00:31.080,0:00:34.496
this was the collected wisdom[br]of an entire continent,

0:00:34.520,0:00:38.600
the voice of Africa at a time when Africa[br]was thought not to have a voice at all.

0:00:39.480,0:00:41.976
The mayor of Bamako,[br]who witnessed the event,

0:00:42.000,0:00:43.936
called the burning of the manuscripts

0:00:43.960,0:00:46.200
"a crime against world cultural heritage."

0:00:46.880,0:00:48.416
And he was right --

0:00:48.440,0:00:51.880
or he would have been, if it weren't[br]for the fact that he was also lying.

0:00:52.560,0:00:55.296
In fact, just before,

0:00:55.320,0:00:59.456
African scholars had collected[br]a random assortment of old books

0:00:59.480,0:01:01.976
and left them out[br]for the terrorists to burn.

0:01:02.000,0:01:04.936
Today, the collection[br]lies hidden in Bamako,

0:01:04.959,0:01:06.336
the capital of Mali,

0:01:06.360,0:01:08.456
moldering in the high humidity.

0:01:08.480,0:01:10.336
What was rescued by ruse

0:01:10.360,0:01:12.096
is now once again in jeopardy,

0:01:12.120,0:01:13.360
this time by climate.

0:01:14.200,0:01:16.616
But Africa, and the far-flung[br]corners of the world,

0:01:16.640,0:01:18.936
are not the only places,[br]or even the main places

0:01:18.960,0:01:23.256
in which manuscripts that could change[br]the history of world culture

0:01:23.280,0:01:24.800
are in jeopardy.

0:01:25.920,0:01:30.656
Several years ago, I conducted[br]a survey of European research libraries

0:01:30.680,0:01:32.936
and discovered that,[br]at the barest minimum,

0:01:32.960,0:01:36.176
there are 60,000 manuscripts

0:01:36.200,0:01:37.816
pre-1500

0:01:37.840,0:01:40.776
that are illegible[br]because of water damage,

0:01:40.800,0:01:44.776
fading, mold and chemical reagents.

0:01:44.800,0:01:47.776
The real number is likely double that,

0:01:47.800,0:01:49.976
and that doesn't even count

0:01:50.000,0:01:52.616
Renaissance manuscripts[br]and modern manuscripts

0:01:52.640,0:01:55.760
and cultural heritage[br]objects such as maps.

0:01:57.960,0:02:00.416
What if there were a technology

0:02:00.440,0:02:05.776
that could recover[br]these lost and unknown works?

0:02:05.800,0:02:10.216
Imagine worldwide[br]how a trove of hundreds of thousands

0:02:10.240,0:02:13.176
of previously unknown texts

0:02:13.200,0:02:16.240
could radically transform[br]our knowledge of the past.

0:02:18.280,0:02:22.296
Imagine what unknown classics[br]we would discover

0:02:22.320,0:02:25.656
which would rewrite the canons[br]of literature, history,

0:02:25.680,0:02:27.120
philosophy, music --

0:02:27.840,0:02:31.376
or, more provocatively, that could[br]rewrite our cultural identities,

0:02:31.400,0:02:34.760
building new bridges[br]between people and culture.

0:02:35.520,0:02:38.056
These are the questions[br]that transformed me

0:02:38.080,0:02:40.896
from a medieval scholar,[br]a reader of texts,

0:02:40.920,0:02:42.720
into a textual scientist.

0:02:44.120,0:02:46.416
What an unsatisfying word "reader" is.

0:02:46.440,0:02:49.016
For me, it conjures up[br]images of passivity,

0:02:49.040,0:02:51.456
of someone sitting idly in an armchair

0:02:51.480,0:02:53.776
waiting for knowledge to come to him

0:02:53.800,0:02:55.496
in a neat little parcel.

0:02:55.520,0:02:58.536
How much better to be[br]a participant in the past,

0:02:58.560,0:03:01.736
an adventurer in an undiscovered country,

0:03:01.760,0:03:04.160
searching for the hidden text.

0:03:05.360,0:03:07.800
As an academic, I was a mere reader.

0:03:08.560,0:03:10.976
I read and taught the same classics

0:03:11.000,0:03:14.136
that people had been reading[br]and teaching for hundreds of years --

0:03:14.160,0:03:17.176
Virgil, Ovid, Chaucer, Petrarch --

0:03:17.200,0:03:19.536
and with every scholarly article[br]that I published

0:03:19.560,0:03:22.760
I added to human knowledge[br]in ever-diminishing slivers of insight.

0:03:24.760,0:03:26.336
What I wanted to be

0:03:26.360,0:03:28.456
was an archaeologist of the past,

0:03:28.480,0:03:30.056
a discoverer of literature,

0:03:30.080,0:03:31.976
an Indiana Jones without the whip --

0:03:32.000,0:03:33.496
or, actually, with the whip.

0:03:33.520,0:03:34.736
(Laughter)

0:03:34.760,0:03:38.456
And I wanted it not just for myself[br]but I wanted it for my students as well.

0:03:38.480,0:03:42.376
And so six years ago,[br]I changed the direction of my career.

0:03:42.400,0:03:45.416
At the time, I was working[br]on "The Chess of Love,"

0:03:45.440,0:03:48.296
the last important long poem[br]of the European Middle Ages

0:03:48.320,0:03:49.936
never to have been edited.

0:03:49.960,0:03:52.976
And it wasn't edited because[br]it existed in only one manuscript

0:03:53.000,0:03:56.256
which was so badly damaged[br]during the firebombing of Dresden

0:03:56.280,0:03:57.496
in World War II

0:03:57.520,0:04:00.400
that generations of scholars[br]had pronounced it lost.

0:04:01.400,0:04:04.856
For five years, I had been working[br]with an ultraviolet lamp

0:04:04.880,0:04:06.776
trying to recover traces of the writing

0:04:06.800,0:04:09.216
and I'd gone about as far[br]as technology at the time

0:04:09.240,0:04:10.616
could actually take me.

0:04:10.640,0:04:12.736
And so I did what many people do.

0:04:12.760,0:04:14.776
I went online,

0:04:14.800,0:04:16.536
and there I learned about

0:04:16.560,0:04:21.136
how multispectral imaging had been used[br]to recover two lost treatises

0:04:21.160,0:04:24.056
of the famed Greek[br]mathematician Archimedes

0:04:24.080,0:04:25.616
from a 13th-century palimpsest.

0:04:25.640,0:04:28.920
A palimpsest is a manuscript[br]which has been erased and overwritten.

0:04:30.200,0:04:31.456
And so, out of the blue,

0:04:31.480,0:04:34.536
I decided to write[br]to the lead imaging scientist

0:04:34.560,0:04:36.776
on the Archimedes palimpsest project,

0:04:36.800,0:04:38.296
Professor Roger Easton,

0:04:38.320,0:04:40.136
with a plan and a plea.

0:04:40.160,0:04:42.200
And to my surprise,[br]he actually wrote back.

0:04:44.000,0:04:47.656
With his help, I was able[br]to win a grant from the US government

0:04:47.680,0:04:51.696
to build a transportable,[br]multispectral imaging lab,

0:04:51.720,0:04:56.536
And with this lab, I transformed[br]what was a charred and faded mess

0:04:56.560,0:04:58.560
into a new medieval classic.

0:04:59.360,0:05:02.136
So how does multispectral[br]imaging actually work?

0:05:02.160,0:05:04.616
Well, the idea[br]behind multispectral imaging

0:05:04.640,0:05:08.936
is something that anyone who is familiar[br]with infrared night vision goggles

0:05:08.960,0:05:10.336
will immediately appreciate:

0:05:10.360,0:05:12.856
that what we can see[br]in the visible spectrum of light

0:05:12.880,0:05:15.200
is only a tiny fraction[br]of what's actually there.

0:05:15.720,0:05:17.920
The same is true with invisible writing.

0:05:19.280,0:05:23.456
Our system uses 12 wavelengths of light

0:05:23.480,0:05:25.976
between the ultraviolet and the infrared,

0:05:26.000,0:05:29.056
and these are shown down[br]onto the manuscript from above

0:05:29.080,0:05:30.696
from banks of LEDs,

0:05:30.720,0:05:32.576
and another multispectral light source

0:05:32.600,0:05:35.553
which comes up through[br]the individual leaves of the manuscript.

0:05:35.577,0:05:40.096
Up to 35 images per sequence[br]per leaf are imaged this way

0:05:40.120,0:05:42.740
using a high-powered digital camera[br]equipped with a lens

0:05:42.764,0:05:44.736
which is made out of quartz.

0:05:44.760,0:05:46.856
There are about five[br]of these in the world.

0:05:46.880,0:05:48.696
And once we capture these images,

0:05:48.720,0:05:50.776
we feed them through[br]statistical algorithms

0:05:50.800,0:05:53.296
to further enhance and clarify them,

0:05:53.320,0:05:56.696
using software which was originally[br]designed for satellite images

0:05:56.720,0:06:00.096
and used by people[br]like geospatial scientists

0:06:00.120,0:06:01.320
and the CIA.

0:06:02.040,0:06:04.336
The results can be spectacular.

0:06:04.360,0:06:06.536
You may already have heard[br]of what's been done

0:06:06.560,0:06:07.936
for the Dead Sea Scrolls,

0:06:07.960,0:06:09.520
which are slowly gelatinizing.

0:06:10.480,0:06:14.136
Using infrared, we've been able[br]to read even the darkest corners

0:06:14.160,0:06:15.880
of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

0:06:16.880,0:06:18.336
You may not be aware, however,

0:06:18.360,0:06:21.096
of other Biblical texts[br]that are in jeopardy.

0:06:21.120,0:06:24.536
Here, for example,[br]is a leaf from a manuscript

0:06:24.560,0:06:26.336
that we imaged,

0:06:26.360,0:06:30.240
which is perhaps the most valuable[br]Christian Bible in the world.

0:06:30.880,0:06:36.656
The Codex Vercellensis is the oldest[br]translation of the Gospels into Latin,

0:06:36.680,0:06:39.280
and it dates from the first half[br]of the fourth century.

0:06:40.560,0:06:42.816
This is the closest we can come

0:06:42.840,0:06:46.776
to the Bible at the time[br]of the foundation of Christendom

0:06:46.800,0:06:48.416
under Emperor Constantine,

0:06:48.440,0:06:50.976
and at the time also[br]of the Council of Nicaea,

0:06:51.000,0:06:54.496
when the basic creed of Christianity[br]was being agreed upon.

0:06:54.520,0:06:57.776
This manuscript, unfortunately,[br]has been very badly damaged,

0:06:57.800,0:07:00.016
and it's damaged because for centuries

0:07:00.040,0:07:02.496
it had been used and handled

0:07:02.520,0:07:05.216
in swearing in ceremonies in the church.

0:07:05.240,0:07:09.896
In fact, that purple splotch[br]that you see in the upper left hand corner

0:07:09.920,0:07:14.216
is Aspergillus, which is a fungus

0:07:14.240,0:07:17.776
which originates in the unwashed hands

0:07:17.800,0:07:19.800
of a person with tuberculosis.

0:07:20.640,0:07:23.696
Our imaging has enabled me[br]to make the first transcription

0:07:23.720,0:07:26.320
of this manuscript in 250 years.

0:07:27.800,0:07:31.256
Having a lab that can travel[br]to collections where it's needed, however,

0:07:31.280,0:07:32.760
is only part of the solution.

0:07:33.480,0:07:36.336
The technology is expensive and very rare,

0:07:36.360,0:07:39.576
and the imaging and image[br]processing skills are esoteric.

0:07:39.600,0:07:41.296
That means that mounting recoveries

0:07:41.320,0:07:46.216
is beyond the reach of most researchers[br]and all but the wealthiest institutions.

0:07:46.240,0:07:49.016
That's why I founded the Lazarus Project,

0:07:49.040,0:07:50.696
a not-for-profit initiative

0:07:50.720,0:07:54.696
to bring multispectral imaging[br]to individual researchers

0:07:54.720,0:07:58.560
and smaller institutions[br]at little or no cost whatsoever.

0:07:59.560,0:08:01.176
Over the past five years,

0:08:01.200,0:08:05.056
our team of imaging scientists,[br]scholars and students

0:08:05.080,0:08:07.256
has travelled to seven different countries

0:08:07.280,0:08:11.136
and have recovered some of the world's[br]most valuable damaged manuscripts,

0:08:11.160,0:08:14.160
included the Vercelli Book,[br]which is the oldest book of English,

0:08:14.184,0:08:16.800
the Black Book of Carmarthen,[br]the oldest book of Welsh,

0:08:16.824,0:08:20.296
and some of the most valuable[br]earliest Gospels

0:08:20.320,0:08:23.200
located in what is now[br]the former Soviet Georgia.

0:08:24.600,0:08:27.560
So, spectral imaging[br]can recover lost texts.

0:08:28.360,0:08:33.456
More subtly, though, it can recover[br]a second story behind every object,

0:08:33.480,0:08:38.176
the story of how, when[br]and by whom a text was created,

0:08:38.200,0:08:41.600
and, sometimes, what the author[br]was thinking at the time he wrote.

0:08:42.600,0:08:45.696
Take, for example, a draft[br]of the Declaration of Independence

0:08:45.720,0:08:48.136
written in Thomas Jefferson's own hand,

0:08:48.160,0:08:50.589
which some colleagues of mine[br]imaged a few years ago

0:08:50.613,0:08:51.933
at the Library of Congress.

0:08:52.360,0:08:55.056
Curators had noticed[br]that one word throughout

0:08:55.080,0:08:57.456
had been scratched out and overwritten.

0:08:57.480,0:08:59.560
The word overwritten was "citizens."

0:09:00.240,0:09:02.840
Perhaps you can guess[br]what the word underneath was.

0:09:03.960,0:09:05.376
"Subjects."

0:09:05.400,0:09:08.216
There, ladies and gentlemen,[br]is American democracy

0:09:08.240,0:09:10.320
evolving under the hand[br]of Thomas Jefferson.

0:09:11.360,0:09:15.216
Or consider the 1491 Martellus Map,

0:09:15.240,0:09:17.576
which we imaged[br]at Yale's Beinecke Library.

0:09:17.600,0:09:20.056
This was the map[br]that Columbus likely consulted

0:09:20.080,0:09:21.776
before he traveled to the New World

0:09:21.800,0:09:24.536
and which gave him his idea[br]of what Asia looked like

0:09:24.560,0:09:26.160
and where Japan was located.

0:09:27.640,0:09:30.656
The problem with this map[br]is that its inks and pigments

0:09:30.680,0:09:32.776
had so degraded over time

0:09:32.800,0:09:34.936
that this large, nearly seven-foot map,

0:09:34.960,0:09:37.040
made the world look like a giant desert.

0:09:37.520,0:09:41.136
Until now, we had very little idea,[br]detailed idea, that is,

0:09:41.160,0:09:42.816
of what Columbus knew of the world

0:09:42.840,0:09:44.760
and how world cultures were represented.

0:09:45.240,0:09:49.376
The main legend of the map[br]was entirely illegible under normal light.

0:09:49.400,0:09:51.656
Ultraviolet did very little for it.

0:09:51.680,0:09:53.680
Multispectral gave us everything.

0:09:54.640,0:09:58.216
In Asia, we learned of monsters[br]with ears so long

0:09:58.240,0:10:00.560
that they could cover[br]the creature's entire body.

0:10:01.040,0:10:05.440
In Africa, about a snake[br]who could cause the ground to smoke.

0:10:06.680,0:10:08.936
Like starlight, which can convey images

0:10:08.960,0:10:11.536
of the way the Universe[br]looked in the distant past,

0:10:11.560,0:10:15.456
so multispectral light can take us back[br]to the first stuttering moments

0:10:15.480,0:10:16.760
of an object's creation.

0:10:17.480,0:10:21.416
Through this lens, we witness[br]the mistakes, the changes of mind,

0:10:21.440,0:10:24.336
the naïvetés, the uncensored thoughts,

0:10:24.360,0:10:26.576
the imperfections of the human imagination

0:10:26.600,0:10:29.416
that allow these hallowed objects[br]and their authors

0:10:29.440,0:10:31.096
to become more real,

0:10:31.120,0:10:33.640
that make history closer to us.

0:10:34.760,0:10:36.040
What about the future?

0:10:36.480,0:10:38.656
There's so much of the past,

0:10:38.680,0:10:41.896
and so few people[br]with the skills to rescue it

0:10:41.920,0:10:45.800
before these objects disappear forever.

0:10:46.480,0:10:49.776
That's why I have begun to teach[br]this new hybrid discipline

0:10:49.800,0:10:51.696
that I call "textual science."

0:10:51.720,0:10:53.336
Textual science is a marriage

0:10:53.360,0:10:55.736
of the traditional skills[br]of a literary scholar --

0:10:55.760,0:10:58.296
the ability to read old languages[br]and old handwriting,

0:10:58.320,0:11:00.016
the knowledge of how texts are made

0:11:00.040,0:11:02.176
in order to be able[br]to place and date them --

0:11:02.200,0:11:04.936
with new techniques like imaging science,

0:11:04.960,0:11:07.536
the chemistry of inks and pigments,

0:11:07.560,0:11:09.960
computer-aided optical[br]character recognition.

0:11:11.160,0:11:13.336
Last year, a student in my class,

0:11:13.360,0:11:14.576
a freshman,

0:11:14.600,0:11:16.416
with a background in Latin and Greek,

0:11:16.440,0:11:18.776
was image-processing a palimpsest

0:11:18.800,0:11:21.520
that we had photographed[br]at a famous library in Rome.

0:11:22.240,0:11:27.000
As he worked, tiny Greek writing[br]began to appear from behind the text.

0:11:28.200,0:11:29.696
Everyone gathered around,

0:11:29.720,0:11:32.376
and he read a line from a lost work

0:11:32.400,0:11:34.720
of the Greek comic dramatist Menander.

0:11:35.760,0:11:38.456
This was the first time[br]in well over a thousand years

0:11:38.480,0:11:41.040
that those words[br]had been pronounced aloud.

0:11:41.880,0:11:44.440
In that moment, he became a scholar.

0:11:45.440,0:11:48.320
Ladies and gentlemen,[br]that is the future of the past.

0:11:48.840,0:11:50.056
Thank you very much.

0:11:50.080,0:11:53.080
(Applause)