Albertin, F.Patera, A.Jerjen, I.Hartmann, S.Peccenini, E.Kaplan, F.Stampanoni, M.Kaufmann, R.Margaritondo, G.2015-11-302015-11-302015-11-30201610.1016/j.microc.2015.11.024https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/120845WOS:000369205900022We present a fundamental development step of a new technique to read and digitize ancient handwritten documents. Chemical analysis by x-ray fluorescence and x-ray tomography enabled us to decipher words and drawings from inside a closed, 200-pages 18 th century handwritten book. The ink chemistry is essential: tomographic reading is feasible thanks to the iron present in ancient inks (iron gall) over one millennium – whereas carbon or organic inks do not provide sufficient x-ray contrast. The results presented are a key progress towards the ultimate goal of the technique: non-invasive reading of fragile and/or unopenable documents.CIBM-PCtext::journal::journal article::research article