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Herculaneum papyri

The Herculaneum papyri are more than 1,800 papyri found in the
Herculaneum Villa of the Papyri, in the 18th century, carbonized by the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

The papyri, containing a number of Greek philosophical texts, come from the
only surviving library from antiquity that exists in its entirety.[1] Most of the
works discovered are associated with the Epicurean philosopher and poet
Philodemus.

Contents
Discovery
Excavations
Post-excavation history
Unrolling
Early attempts
Modern attempts Herculaneum papyrus 1425 (De
poem), drawn by Giuseppe
Virtual unrolling
Casanova, ca. 1807
Segmentation
Texturing
Flattening
Texture Merging
Mesh Merging
Significance
Additional images
See also
References
Further reading Papyrus H, photographed in 2016

External links

Discovery
Due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, bundles of scrolls were carbonized by the intense heat of the
pyroclastic flows.[2] This intense parching took place over an extremely short period of time, in a room deprived of
oxygen, resulting in the scrolls' carbonisation into compact and highly fragile blocks.[1] They were then preserved by the
layers of cement-like rock.[2]

In 1752, workmen of the Bourbon royal family accidentally discovered what is now known as the Villa of the
Papyri.[1][3] There may still be a lower section of the Villa's collection that remains buried.[2]

Ethel Ross Barker noted in her 1908 Buried Herculaneum:[4]

Appearance of the rolls. — A large number of


papyri, after being buried eighteen centuries, have
been found in the Villa named after them. In
appearance the rolls resembled lumps of charcoal;
and many were thrown away as such. Some were
much lighter in colour. Finally, a faint trace of
letters was seen on one of the blackened masses,
which was found to be a roll of papyrus,
disintegrated by decay and damp, full of holes, cut,
crushed, and crumpled. The papyri were found at a
depth of about 120 feet (37 metres).

The woodwork of some of the presses that had


contained them dropped to dust on exposure and
many rolls were found lying about loosely. Others
were still on the shelves. Locality of the discovery.
— They were found in four places on four
occasions. The first were found in the autumn of
1752, fourteen years after the first discovery of
Herculaneum, in and near the tablinum, and only
numbered some 21 volumes and fragments,
contained in two wooden cases. In the spring of
1753, 11 papyri were found in a room just south of
the tablinum, and in the summer of the same year,
250 were found in a room to the north. In the spring
and summer of the following year, 337 Greek
papyri and 18 Latin papyri were found in the
Library. Nothing of any importance was discovered Dionysus, Plato, or Poseidon sculpture excavated at
after this date. the Villa of the Papyri.

The numbers given here exclude mere fragments.


Including every tiny fragment found, the catalogues
give 1756 manuscripts discovered up to 1855,
while subsequent discoveries bring the total up to
1806. Of these, 341 were found almost entire, 500
were merely charred fragments, and the remaining
965 were in every intermediate state of
disintegration.

Treatment of the rolls. — No one knew how to deal Map of Villa of the Papyri.
with such strange material. Weber, the engineer, and
Paderni, the keeper of the Museum at Portici, were
not experts in palaeography and philology, which
sciences were, indeed, almost in their infancy one
hundred and fifty years ago. There were no official
publications concerning the papyri till forty years
after their discovery, and our information is of
necessity incomplete, inexact and contradictory.

Father Piaggio's machine. — Through this


inevitable ignorance of the time, a larger number of
the rolls were destroyed than the difficulties of the
case necessitated. Many had been thrown away as
mere charcoal; some were destroyed in extracting
them from the lava in which they were embedded.
In the attempt to discover their contents, several
were split in two longitudinally. Finally, that
ingenious Italian monk. Father Piaggio, invented a
very simple machine for unrolling the manuscripts
by means of silk threads attached to the edge of the
papyrus. Of course this method destroyed the
beginning of all the papyri, sometimes the end
could not be found, and the papyri were in a terrible
state of decay.

Excavations

In the 18th century, the first digs began. The excavation appeared
closer to mining projects, as mineshafts were dug, and horizontal Anybody who focuses on the ancient
subterranean galleries were installed. Workers would place objects world is always going to be excited to
in baskets and send them back up.[1] get even one paragraph, one chapter,
more... The prospect of getting
With the backing of Charles III of Spain (1716 – 1788), Roque hundreds of books more is staggering.
Joaquín de Alcubierre headed the systematic excavation of
Herculaneum with Karl Jakob Weber.[5] — Roger Macfarlane[2]

Barker noted in her 1908 Buried Herculaneum, "By the orders of


Francis I land was purchased, and in 1828 excavations were begun in two parts 150 feet [46 m] apart, under the direction
of the architect. Carlo Bonucci. In the year 1868 still further purchases of land were made, and excavations were carried
on in an eastward direction till 1875. The total area now open measures 300 by 150 perches (1510 by 756 metres). The
limits of the excavations to the north and east respectively are the modern streets of Vico di Mare and Vico Ferrara. It is
here only that any portion of ancient Herculaneum may be seen in the open day."[4]

It is uncertain how many papyri were originally found as many of the scrolls were destroyed by workmen or when
scholars extracted them from the volcanic tuff.[6]

The official list amounts to 1,814 rolls and fragments, of which 1,756 had been discovered by 1855. In the 90s it was
reported that the inventory now comprises 1826 papyri,[7] with more than 340 are almost complete, about 970 are partly
decayed and partly decipherable, and more than 500 are merely charred fragments.[3]

In 2016, academics asked in an open letter the Italian authorities to consider new excavations, since it is assumed that
many more papyri may be buried at the site.

Post-excavation history

In 1802, King Ferdinand IV of Naples offered six rolls to Napoleon Bonaparte in a diplomatic move. In 1803, along
with other treasures, the scrolls were transported by Francesco Carelli. Upon receiving the gift, Bonaparte then gave the
scrolls to Institut de France under charge of Gaspard Monge and Vivant Denon.[1]

In 1810, eighteen unrolled papyri were given to George IV, four of which he presented to the Bodleian Library; the rest
are now mainly in the British Library.[3]

Unrolling

Carbonized paper, found with other images in an 1858 published book by Giacomo Castrucci.[8]
Since their discovery, previous attempts used rose water, liquid mercury, vegetable gas, sulfuric compounds, papyrus
juice, or a mixture of ethanol, glycerin, and warm water, in hopes to make scrolls readable.[9] According to Antonio de
Simone and Richard Janko at first the papyri were mistaken for carbonized tree branches, some perhaps were even
thrown away or burnt to make heat.[10]

Opening a scroll would often damage or destroy the scroll


completely. If a scroll had been successfully opened, the original
ink – exposed to air – would begin to fade. In addition, this form of What we see is that the ink, which was
unrolling often would leave pages stuck together, omitting or essentially carbon based, is not very
destroying additional information.[2] different from the carbonised papyrus.

With X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), no ink can be — Dr. Vito Mocella[11]
seen as carbon-based ink is not visible on carbonized papyrus.[2]

Early attempts

Following the discovery of the Herculaneum papyri in 1752, per


the advice from Bernardo Tanucci, King Charles VII of Naples
established a commission to study them.[12]

Possibly the first attempts to read the scrolls were done by the
artist Camillo Paderni who was in charge of recovered items.
Paderni used the method of slicing scrolls in half, copying
readable text, by removing papyri layers. This transcription
procedure was used for hundreds of scrolls, and in the process
destroyed them.[13]

In 1756, Abbot Piaggio, conserver of ancient manuscripts in the


Vatican Library, used a machine he also invented,[8] to unroll
the first scroll, which took four years (millimeters per
day).[14][10] The results were then swiftly copied (since the
writing rapidly disappeared: see below), reviewed by Hellenist
academics, and then corrected once more, if necessary, by the
unrolling/copying team.[1]

In 1802, King Ferdinand IV of Naples appointed Rev. John


Hayter to assist the process.[1]

From 1802 to 1806, Hayter unrolled and partly deciphered some


200 papyri.[3] These copies are held in the Bodleian Library,
where they are known as the "Oxford Facsimiles of the
Herculaneum Papyri".[1]

In January 1816, Pierre-Claude Molard and Raoul Rochette led


an attempt to unroll one papyrus with a replica of Abbot Abbot Piaggio machine was used to unroll scrolls as
Piaggio's machine. However, the entire scroll was destroyed early as 1756 in the Vatican Library.
without any information being obtained.[1]

From 1819 until 1820, Humphry Davy was commissioned by the Prince Regent George IV to work on the Herculaneum
papyri. Although it is considered that he had only limited success, Davy's chemical method, using chlorine managed to
partially unroll 23 manuscripts.[15]

In 1877, a papyrus was taken to a laboratory in the Louvre. An attempt to unravel it was made with a "small mill", but it
was unsuccessful and was partially destroyed, leaving only a quarter intact.[1]

By the middle of the 20th century, only 585 rolls or fragments had been completely unrolled, and 209 unrolled in part.
Of the unrolled papyri, about 200 had been deciphered and published, and about 150 only deciphered.[3]
Modern attempts

The bulk of the preserved manuscripts are housed in the Office of Herculaneum
papyri in National Library of Naples.[16]

In 1969, Marcello Gigante founded the creation of the International Center for
the Study of the Herculaneum Papyri (Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei
Papiri Ercolanesi; CISPE).[17] With the intention of working toward the
resumption of the excavation of the Villa of the Papyri, and promoting the
renewal of studies of the Herculaneum texts, the institution began a new method
of unrolling. Using the 'Oslo' method, the CISPE team separated individual
layers of the papyri. One of the scrolls exploded into 300 parts, and another did
similarly but to a lesser extent.[1]

Since 1999, the papyri have been digitized by applying multi-spectral imaging
(MSI) techniques. International experts and prominent scholars participated in
the project. On 4 June 2011 it was announced that the task of digitizing 1,600
Herculaneum papyri had been completed.[18][19]

Since 2007, a team working with Institut de Papyrologie and a group of


scientists from Kentucky have been using x-rays and nuclear magnetic
resonance to analyze the artifacts.[1]
A copy of identifiable text of papyrus
In 2009, the Institut de France in conjunction with the French National Center 152-157
for Scientific Research imaged two intact Herculaneum papyri using X-ray
micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to reveal the interior structures of the
scrolls.[20][21] The team heading the project estimated that if the scrolls were fully unwound it would be between 11 to
15 metres (36 to 49 ft) long.[2] The internal structure of the rolls was revealed to be extremely compact and convoluted,
defeating the automatic unwrapping computer algorithms that the team had developed. Manual examination of small
segments of the internal structure of the rolls proved more successful, unveiling the individual fibres of the papyrus.
Unfortunately, no ink could be seen on the small samples imaged, because carbon-based inks are not visible on the
carbonized scrolls.[2] However, some scrolls were written with ink containing lead.[22]

Virtual unrolling

According to Bukreeva et al. 2016, "The procedure of virtual unrolling can be divided into three main steps: volumetric
scanning, segmentation, layered texture generation and restoration." Seales et al. 2005 and 2013 developed promising
software that integrates functions of flattening and unrolling based on mass-spring surface simulations. Samko et al. 2014
proposed algorithms to solve problems of touching points between adjacent sheet layers.[23]

In 2015, a team led by Dr. Vito Mocella, from the National Research Council's Institute for Microelectronics and
Microsystems (CNR-IMM),[11][24] has announced that "... X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT) can reveal various
letters hidden inside the precious papyri without unrolling them. [...] This pioneering research opens up new prospects
not only for the many papyri still unopened, but also for others that have not yet been discovered, perhaps including a
second library of Latin papyri at a lower, as yet unexcavated level of the Villa."[25] The microscopic relief of letters – a
tenth of a millimetre[11] – on the papyri seems to be enough to create a noticeable phase contrast with the XPCT scans.
This team was even able to identify some writing on a still-rolled scroll.[2] With the aim of making these scans cogent, a
team is working with the National Science Foundation and Google to develop software which can sort through these
displaced letters and figure out where they are located on the scroll.[2]

Following the pioneering results of Dr. Mocella et al., in 2016 another team led by Dr. G. Ranocchia and Dr. A. Cedola
announced encouraging results by means of the non-destructive Synchrotron X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT)
technique.[26][23]
In September 2016, a method pioneered by University of Kentucky computer scientist W. Brent Seales was successfully
used to unlock the text of a charred parchment from Israel, the En-Gedi Scroll.[27] According to experts, this new
method devised by Seales may make it possible to read the carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum.

The virtual unwrapping process begins with using a volumetric scan to scan the damaged scroll. These scans are non-
invasive, and generate a 3D mapping which differentiates between the ink and the paper. The virtual unwrapping process
is independent of which type of volumetric scan is used, which allows scientists to test out different scanning methods to
find which distinguishes ink from paper best and which easily accommodates scanning upgrades. The only data needed
for the virtual unwrapping process is this volumetric scan, so after this point the scroll was safely returned to its protective
archive. In the case of the Herculaneum papyri, the volumetric scan used X-ray phase-contrast tomography, which
proved most beneficial for the study of ancient papyri in a feasibility test conducted in 2015. [23] This method of
volumetric scanning is most beneficial for the Herculaneum papyri because these papyri have carbon-based ink, which
will have the same material characteristics as the carbon-based papyrus. This makes it difficult to image using many of
the traditional imaging techniques, which often use differences in the light absorption/emission characteristics of different
materials to create these volumetric scans. XPCT, on the other hand, examines the phase of x-ray radiation after it
emerges from the scroll to determine its composition. Because the ink is raised relative to the papyrus, the radiation will
be traveling in the material of the scroll slightly longer when it passes through a spot with ink than when it passes
through a spot with a blank space. This means that when the radiation emerges from the paper, its phase will be slightly
different than that of the empty space, allowing researchers to distinguish ink-covered spots from blank spots. [28] While
this technique does allow researchers to visualize places with ink, it is much less clear than techniques such as CT scans
which distinguish between different materials because slight changes (thinner ink, thicker papyrus, folds in the papyrus)
all contribute to noise in the volumetric scan.

The volumetric scan allows the computer to associate the composition of the scroll with corresponding positions, called
voxels or volume-pixels. The goal of the virtual unwrapping process is to determine the layered structure of the scroll and
try to peel back each layer while keeping track of which voxel is being peeled and what composition it corresponds to.
By transforming the voxels from a 3D volumetric scan to a 2D image, the writing on this inside is revealed to the viewer.
This process happens in three steps: segmentation, texturing and flattening.

Segmentation

The first stage of the virtual unwrapping process, segmentation, involves identifying geometric models for the structures
within the virtual scan of the scroll. Because of the extensive damage, the parchment has become deformed and no
longer has a clearly cylindrical geometry. Instead, some portions may look planar, some conical, some triangular, etc.[29]
Therefore, the most efficient way to assign a geometry to the layer is to do so in a piecewise fashion. Rather than
modeling the complex geometry of the entire layer of the scroll, the piecewise model breaks each layer into more regular
shapes that are easy to work with. This makes it easy to virtually lift off each piece of the layer one at a time. Because
each voxel is ordered, peeling off each layer will preserve the continuity of the scroll structure.[23]

Texturing

The second stage, texturing, focuses on identifying intensity values that correspond with each voxel using texture
mapping. From the volumetric scan, each voxel has a corresponding composition. After virtually peeling off the layers
during the segmentation process, the texturing step matches the voxels of each geometric piece to their corresponding
compositions so that an observer is able to see the text written on each piece. In ideal cases, the scanned volume will
match perfectly with the surface of each geometric piece and yield perfectly rendered text, but there are often small errors
in the segmentation process that generate noise in the texturing process.[23] Because of this, the texturing process usually
includes nearest-neighbor interpolation texture filtering to reduce the noise and sharpen the lettering.

Flattening

After segmentation and texturing, each piece of the virtually deconstructed scroll is ordered and has its corresponding
text visualized on its surface. This is, in practice, enough to ‘read’ the inside of the scroll, but for the arts and antiquities
world, it is often best to convert this to a 2D flat image to demonstrate what the scroll’s parchment would have looked
like if they could physically unravel without damage. This requires the virtual unwrapping process to include a step that
converts the curved 3D geometric pieces into flat 2D planes. To do so, the virtual unwrapping models the points on the
surface of each 3D piece as masses connected by springs where the springs will come to rest only when the 3D pieces
are perfectly flat. This technique is inspired by the mass-spring systems traditionally used to model deformation.[23]

After segmenting, textualizing, and flattening the scroll to obtain 2D text fragments, the last step is a merge step meant to
reconcile each individual segment to visualize the unwrapped parchment as a whole. This involves two parts: texture
merging and mesh merging.

Texture Merging

Texture merging aligns the textures from each segment to create a composite. This process is fast and gives feedback on
the quality of the segmentation and alignment of each piece. While this is good enough to create a basic image of what
the scroll looks like, there are some distortions which arise because each segment is individually flattened. Therefore, this
is the first step in the merging process, used to check if the segmentation, texturing, and flattening processes were done
correctly, but does not produce a final result.[23]

Mesh Merging

Mesh merging is more precise and is the final step in visualizing the unwrapped scroll. This type of merging recombines
each point on the surface of each segment with the corresponding point on its neighbor segment to remove the distortions
due to individual flattening. This step also re-flattens and re-textures the image to create the final visualization of the
unwrapped scroll, and is computationally expensive compared to the texture merging process detailed above.

Using each of these steps, the computer is able to transform the voxels from the 3D volumetric scan and their
corresponding density brightnesses to a 2D virtually unwrapped image of the text inside.[23] These techniques, while
successful at isolating the layers of the papyri, had difficulty detecting text clearly due to the complex geometry of the
sheets, such as the criss-cross structure of the papyrus fibres and the sheets, pleats, holes, tears, and contamination from
the extensive damage. One potential source of error might be the 3D volumetric scan itself or the flattening procedure
used to read it since the algorithms are not able to perfectly prevent distortions in the reading of these papyri. [23]

Seales presented in 2018 readability of parts of a Herculaneum papyri (P.Herc. 118) from the Bodleian Libraries, at
Oxford University, which was given by the King Ferdinand of Naples to the Prince of Wales in 1810. The imaging
method Seales used involved a hand-held 3-D scanner called an Artec Space Spider.[13] The same year he demonstrated
readability success of another Herculaneum scroll, with help of the particle accelerator Diamond Light Source, through a
powerful x-rays imaging technique, letter ink which contains trace amounts of lead were detected. This technique could
possibly open the door in reading the remaining unopened 500 Herculaneum scrolls.[13] Prior to this he demonstrated
successful virtual unrolling without detecting ink on Herculaneum scrolls.[30]

Significance
Until the middle of the 18th century, the only papyri known were a few
survivals from medieval times.[31] Most likely, these rolls would never have
survived the Mediterranean climate and would have crumbled or been lost.
Indeed, all these rolls have come from the only surviving library from antiquity
that exists in its entirety.[1]
A papyrus copy depicting the
Epicurean tetrapharmakos in
These papyri contain a large number of Greek philosophical texts. Large parts of
Philodemus' Adversus Sophistas –
Books XIV, XV, XXV, and XXVIII of the magnum opus of Epicurus, On
(P.Herc.1005), col. 5
Nature and works by early followers of Epicurus are also represented among the
papyri.[17] Of the rolls, 44 have been identified as the work of Philodemus of
Gadara, an Epicurean philosopher and poet. The manuscript "PHerc.Paris.2"
contains part of Philodemus' On Vices and Virtues.[1]
The Stoic philosopher Chrysippus is attested to have written over 700 works,[32] all of them lost, with the exception of a
few fragments quoted by other authors.[33] Segments of his works On Providence and Logical Questions were found
among the papyri;[33] a third work of his may have been recovered from the charred rolls.[34]

Parts of a poem on the Battle of Actium have also survived in the library.[35]

In May 2018, it was reported that fragments of the lost work Histories by Seneca the Elder have been found on a
papyrus scroll (PHerc. 1067).[36]

Additional images

See also
Conservation issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum
Friends of Herculaneum Society
Ancient Greek literature
Villa of the Papyri
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79
Ercolano

References
1. Interview with Daniel Delattre: the Herculaneum scrolls given to Consul Bonaparte (2010), Napoleon.org
(http://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/interviews/files/476891.asp#informations) Archived (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20151030232207/http://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/interviews/files/476891.asp)
2015-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
2. "History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places - Smithsonian" (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a
ncient-scrolls-blackened-vesuvius-are-readable-last-herculaneum-papyri-180953950/).
smithsonianmag.com.
3. Diringer, David (1982). The Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval and Oriental (https://archive.org/det
ails/bookbeforeprinti0000diri/page/252). New York: Dover Publications. pp. 252–6 (https://archive.org/de
tails/bookbeforeprinti0000diri/page/252). ISBN 978-0-486-24243-9.
4. Ethel Ross Barker (1908). Buried Herculaneum (https://archive.org/details/buriedherculaneu00barkuoft).
London : A. & C. Black.
5. "Since the Re-discovery - AD79eruption" (https://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/dramatis-personae/
since-the-re-discovery). google.com.
6. Banerji, Robin (20 Dec 2013). "Unlocking the scrolls of Herculaneum" (https://www.bbc.com/news/maga
zine-25106956). BBC News. British Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 5 Jan 2017.
7. (1986) IV. The Herculaneum Papyri (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-5370.1986.tb0137
4.x/abstract), Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 33, pp. 36–45
8. Giacomo Castrucci (1858). Tesoro letterario di Ercolano, ossia, La reale officina dei papiri ercolanesi (htt
ps://archive.org/stream/tesoroletterario00cast#page/n27/mode/2up). Napoli : Fibreno.
9. "The Invisible Library" (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/16/the-invisible-library). The New
Yorker. 2015.
10. "Out of the Ashes - Recovering the Lost Library of the Herculaneum" (http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/ar
chive/index.jsp?pgmid=12418&date=20050301). PBS. 2004.
11. Jonathan Webb X-ray technique reads burnt Vesuvius scroll (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environ
ment-30888767) BBC News, Science & Environment, 20 January 2015
12. Jade Koekoe (2017). "Herculaneum: Villa of the Papyri" (http://etc.ancient.eu/education/villa-papyri/).
Retrieved January 19, 2019.
13. Jo Marchant (2018). "Buried by the Ash of Vesuvius, These Scrolls Are Being Read for the First Time in
Millennia" (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/buried-ash-vesuvius-scrolls-are-being-read-new-xr
ay-technique-180969358/). Smithonian Magazine. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
14. "Herculaneum Papyri in the National Library in Naples" (https://thephraser.com/2015/03/30/herculaneum
-papyri-in-the-national-library-in-naples). The Phraser. 2015.
15. Page 203 of Davy, Humphry (1821). "Some Observations and Experiments on the Papyri Found in the
Ruins of Herculaneum" (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frstl.1821.0016). Philosophical Transactions. 111:
191–208. Bibcode:1821RSPT..111..191D (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1821RSPT..111..191D).
doi:10.1098/rstl.1821.0016 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frstl.1821.0016).
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(2002) Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young U.
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Insights 30/1 (2010) Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young U.
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Visualization & Virtual Environments, U. Kentucky. 2011.
21. W. Brent Seales, James Griffioen, Ryan Baumann, Matthew Field (2011) ANALYSIS OF
HERCULANEUM PAPYRI WITH X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (http://www.ndt.net/article/art201
1/papers/FIELD%20-%20M%2014.pdf) Center for Visualization & Virtual Environments; U. Kentucky
22. Brun; et al. (2016). "Revealing metallic ink in Herculaneum papyri" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art
icles/PMC4833268). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (14): 3751–3754.
Bibcode:2016PNAS..113.3751B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016PNAS..113.3751B).
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01841).
23. Bukreeva I, et al. (2016). "Virtual unrolling and deciphering of Herculaneum papyri by X-ray phase-
contrast tomography" (http://www.nature.com/articles/srep27227/). Scientific Reports. 6: 30364.
Bibcode:2016NatSR...630364B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016NatSR...630364B).
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h.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5016987). PMID 27608927 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27608927).
24. Vergano, Dan (January 22, 2015). "X-Rays Reveal Snippets From Papyrus Scrolls That Survived Mount
Vesuvius" (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150120-roman-scrolls-xray-archeology-sc
ience/). National Geographic.
25. Mocella, Vito; Brun, Emmanuel; Ferrero, Claudio; Delattre, Daniel (2015). "Revealing letters in rolled
Herculaneum papyri by X-ray phase-contrast imaging" (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fncomms6895).
Nature Communications. 6: 5895. Bibcode:2015NatCo...6.5895M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/201
5NatCo...6.5895M). doi:10.1038/ncomms6895 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fncomms6895).
PMID 25603114 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25603114).
26. Bukreeva, I.; et al. (2016). "Enhanced X-ray-phase-contrast-tomography brings new clarity to the 2000-
year-old 'voice' of Epicurean philosopher Philodemus". arXiv:1602.08071 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.080
71) [physics.soc-ph (https://arxiv.org/archive/physics.soc-ph)].
27. Wade, Nicholas (21 September 2016). "Modern Technology Unlocks Secrets of a Damaged Biblical
Scroll" (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/science/ancient-sea-scrolls-bible.html). The New York
Times.
28. Baumann, Ryan; Porter, Dorothy; Seales, W. (2008). "The use of micro-CT in the study of archaeological
artifacts".
29. Bukreeva, Inna; Alessandrelli, Michele; Formoso, Vincenzo; Ranocchia, Graziano; Cedola, Alessia
(2017). "Investigating Herculaneum papyri: An innovative 3D approach for the virtual unfolding of the
rolls". arXiv:1706.09883 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.09883).
30. W. Brent Seales. "Analysis Of Herculaneum Papyri With X-ray Computed Tomography" (https://pdfs.sem
anticscholar.org/2d1a/8f2a807a91f0a5bb6e10051f2c7f0432059a.pdf) (PDF). S2CID 7667891 (https://ap
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31. Frederic G. Kenyon, Palaeography of Greek papyri (https://archive.org/stream/cu31924024493649#pag
e/n13/mode/2up) (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1899), p. 3.
32. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, vii. 180
33. John Sellars, Stoicism. University of California Press, 2007. - p. 8
34. "The first of Chrysippus' partially preserved two or three works is his Logical Questions, contained in
PHerc. 307 ... The second work is his On Providence, preserved in PHerc 1038 and 1421 ... A third
work, most likely by Chrysippus is preserved in PHerc. 1020," Fitzgerald 2004, p. 11
35. Gregory Hays, "Keeping Things Platonic: A new discovery of a possible lost book by Apuleius on Plato"
[review of Justin A Stover, A New Work by Apuleius], Times Literary Supplement 20 May 2016 p. 29.
36. Marino, Carlo (21 May 2018). "Lucius Anneus Seneca the Elder's Histories" (https://www.european-new
s-agency.de/kunst_kultur_und_musik/lucius_anneus_seneca_the_elders_histories_-71128/). European
News Agency. Retrieved 25 May 2018.

Further reading
Armstrong, David. 2011. "Epicurean Virtues, Epicurean Friendship: Cicero vs. The Herculaneum
Papyri." In Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition. Edited by Jeffrey Fish and Kirk R. Sanders.
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press
Blank, David (1999). "Reflections on Re-reading Piaggio and the Early History of the Herculaneum
Papyri". Cronache Ercolanesi. 29: 55–82.
Booras, Steven W.; Seely, David R. (1999). "Multispectral Imaging of the Herculaneum Papyri".
Cronache Ercolanesi. 29: 95–100.
Houston, George W. 2013. "The Non-Philodemus Book Collection in the Villa of the Papyri." In Ancient
Libraries Edited by Jason König, Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Greg Woolf, 183-208. Cambridge; New
York : Cambridge University Press.
Janko, Richard. 1993. Philodemus Resartus: Progress in Reconstructing the Philosophical Papyri from
Herculaneum. In Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy: VII, 1991. Edited
by John J. Cleary. Lanham, Md. & London: University Press of America.
Janko, Richard; Blank, David (1998). "Two New Manuscript Sources for the Texts of the Herculaneum
Papyri". Cronache Ercolanesi. 28: 173–184.
Kleve, Knut (1996). "How to Read an Illegible Papyrus: Towards an Edition of PHerc. 78, Caecilius
Statius, Obolostates sive faenerator". Cronache Ercolanesi. 26: 5–14.
Seales, W. Brent, Jim Griffioen, and David Jacobs. 2011. "Virtual Conservation: Experience with Micro-
CT and Manuscripts." In Eikonopoiia: Digital Imaging of Ancient Textual Heritage: Proceedings of the
International Conference, Helsinki, 28–29 November 2010. Edited by Vesa Vahtikari, Mika Hakkarainen,
and Antti Nurminen, 81–88. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.
Sider, David. 2005. The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty
Museum
Zarmakoupi, Mantha, ed. 2010. The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum: Archaeology, Reception, and
Digital Reconstruction. Berlin: de Gruyter.

External links
Bodleian Library MS. Gr. class. b. 1 (P)/1-12 (http://image.ox.ac.uk/showcollection=bodleian&manuscript
=msgrclassb1p112)
Rawson, C., ed. Out of the Ashes: Recovering the Lost Library of Herculaneum. DVD. 2003. Provo, UT:
Brigham Young University. (http://creativeworks.byu.edu/catalog/ViewItem.aspx?item=UC002)
BYU Herculaneum Project Honored with Mommsen Prize (https://web.archive.org/web/2013070118412
2/http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/insights/?vol=30&num=1&id=894)
Wüerzburg Center for Epicurean Studies (http://epikur-wuerzburg.de/?site=downloads_publikationen)
Porter, James I., Hearing Voices: The Herculaneum Papyri and Classical Scholarship (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20131002123340/http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/view_online.php?url=http%3A%2F%
2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fjamesivanporter%2FPorter_uncorrected-proofs.pdf)
UCLA Department of Classics: The Philodemus Project (https://web.archive.org/web/20110825233211/
http://www.classics.ucla.edu/index.php/philodemus)
The Friends of Herculaneum Society (http://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk)
An incomplete list of papyri from Herculaneum with high resolution photographs (http://163.1.169.40/cgi-
bin/library?e=d-000-00---0PHerc--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-preferences---00031-00
1-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=PHerc&cl=CL5.1).

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