undertext

plural undertexts

1. Text situated below overlying text, such as on a palimpsest.

   The problem is that many of the letters in the undertext of the Palimpsest cannot be read, […]

   2007, Reviel Netz & William Noel, The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity's Greatest Scientist, Da Capo Press (2007), unnamed page

   2 more examples

   […] Agnes reckoned that for the vellum to have been reused in this fashion, the undertext must date to at least 200 years before the overwriting.

   2009, Janet Soskice, The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels, Knopf, →ISBN, page 125

   He noticed that one of the manuscripts had some ancient Greek “undertext” beneath the religious writing.

   2011, Michael Woods, Mary B. Woods, Ancient Machine Technology: From Wheels to Forges, Twenty-First Century Books, →ISBN, page 81