Villa of the Papyri

thumb|The Villa of the Papyri before the eruption.

thumb|A plan of Herculaneum and the location of the Villa

The Villa of the Papyri (, also known as Villa dei Pisoni and in early excavation records as the Villa Suburbana) was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after its unique library of papyri scrolls, discovered in 1750. The Villa was considered to be one of the most luxurious houses in all of Herculaneum and in the Roman world. Its luxury is shown by its exquisite architecture and by the large number of outstanding works of art discovered, including frescoes, bronzes and marble sculpture which constitute the largest collection of Greek and Roman sculptures ever discovered in a single context.

It was situated on the ancient coastline below the volcano Vesuvius with nothing to obstruct the view of the sea. It was perhaps owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus.

In AD 79, the eruption of Vesuvius covered all of Herculaneum with up to of volcanic material from pyroclastic flows. Herculaneum was first excavated between 1750 and 1765 by Karl Weber by means of tunnels. The villa's name derives from the discovery of its library, the only surviving library from the Graeco-Roman world that exists in its entirety. It contained over 1,800 papyrus scrolls, now carbonised by the heat of the eruption, the "Herculaneum papyri".<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Webermap.jpg|thumb|right|Plan of Villa drawn by Weber showing the ancient structures and the tunnels that were made in order to recover the works of art. It has recently been ascertained that the main floor was above sea level in antiquity.

thumb|upright|A bronze bust of [[Scipio Africanus, mid 1st century BC, found in the Villa of the Papyri]]

The villa's layout is an expanded version of the traditional Campanian villa suburbana. One entered through the fauces and proceeded to the atrium, which functioned as an entrance hall and a means of communication with the various parts of the house. The entrance opened with a columned portico on the sea side.

After passing through the tablinum, one arrived at the first peristyle, made up of ten columns on each side, with a swimming pool in the centre. In this area, were found the bronze herm adapted from the Doryphorus of Polykleitos and the herm of an Amazon made by Apollonios, son of Archias of Athens. The large second peristyle could be reached by passing through a large tablinum in which, under a propylaeum, was the archaic statue of Athena Promachos. A collection of bronze busts were in the interior of the tablinum. These included the head of Scipio Africanus.]]

The luxury of the villa is evidenced not only by the many works of art, but especially by the large number of rare bronze statues found there, all masterpieces. The villa housed a collection of at least 80 sculptures of magnificent quality, many now conserved in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Followers of Epicurus studied the teachings of this moral and natural philosopher. This philosophy taught that man is mortal, that the cosmos is the result of accident, that there is no providential god, and that the criteria of a good life are pleasure and temperance. Excavation work at Herculaneum was done through digging tunnels, and piercing walls, in an attempt to find treasures like paintings, statues and other ornaments to be exhibited in the Museum Herculanense, part of the King's Royal Palace in Portici.

The Villa of the Papyri was discovered in 1750 by farmers when digging a well. The following excavation work was conducted first by Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre and later by the Swiss engineer Karl Jakob Weber, who worked under Alcubierre for Charles VII of Naples.

Camillo Paderni who took part at the excavations and was possibly the first to transcribe papyri, noted in a letter dated 1754, "...in five places, where we might have expected to meet with busts or statues, the antients had been digging before us, and taken them away. The method, whereby they regulated their searches, seems to have been this: where the ground was pretty easy to work, they dug through it and where they met with the solid lava they desisted. But whether they were in want of money, or of hands, they certainly did not perfect their intention; as is plain from the statues, which we have found."

Excavations were halted in 1765 due to complaints from the residents living above. The exact location of the villa was then lost for two centuries. David Woodley Packard, who has funded conservation work at Herculaneum through his Packard Humanities Institute, has said that he is likely to be able to fund excavation of the Villa of the Papyri when the authorities agree to it; but no work will be permitted on the site until the completion of a feasibility report, which has been in preparation for some years. The first part of the report emerged in 2008 but included no timetable or cost projections, since the decision for further excavation is a political one. Politics involve excavation under inhabited areas in addition to unspecified but reported references to mafia involvement.

Using multi-spectral imaging, a technique developed in the early 1990s, it is possible to read the burned papyri. With multi-spectral imaging, many pictures of the illegible papyri are taken using different filters in the infrared or the ultraviolet range, finely tuned to capture certain wavelengths of light. Thus, the optimum spectral portion can be found for distinguishing ink from paper on the blackened papyrus surface.

Non-destructive CT scans will, it is hoped, provide breakthroughs in reading the fragile unopened scrolls without destroying them in the process. Encouraging results along this line of research have been obtained, which use phase-contrast X-ray imaging.

According to authors, "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."

Works of art

Sculpture from the Villa

According to the 1908 publication Buried Herculaneum by Ethel Ross Barker, there were busts of Athene Gorgolopha, Archaistic Pallas, Archaic Apollo, Head of an Amazon, Dionysus or Plato (Poseidon?), Doryphorus, Mercury, Homer, Ptolemy Alexander (Alexander the Great?), Ptolemy Philadelphus, Ptolemy Soter I (Seleucus Nicator I), and the mythological Danaids and others.

Busts

File:6018 - Eschine - Napoli.jpg|Statue of Aeschines, Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators, found in the large peristyle

File:Naples Museum 68 (14972985707).jpg|Artemis or Berenike, found in the garden of the villa

File:Safo villa dei Papiri.JPG|Female torso with himation, found in the rectangular peristyle, identified as a poetess, possibly Sappho, after original by Silanion in 350 BCE

File:Ptolemy Alexander MAN Napoli Inv5596.jpg|Unidentified Hellenistic ruler, found in the atrium, perhaps Ptolemy Alexander, Ptolemy Epiphanes, or Nicomedes I of Bithynia

File:L Calpurnius Piso Pontifex MAN Napoli Inv5601.jpg|Lucius Calpurnius Piso Pontifex, found in the villa's tablinum

File:Herm Doryphoros MAN Napoli Inv4885 n01.jpg|Herm with head of Doryphoros, found in the square peristyle

File:Pseudo-Seneca MAN Napoli Inv5616 n02.jpg|Known as Pseudo-Seneca (bust)|, probably a poet or philosopher suggested to be Hesiod or Aristophanes

File:Filosofo detto democrito, da villa dei papiri, peristilio quadrato.JPG|Tentatively identified as Democritus, this portrait from the square peristyle has also been suggested to be Aristotle, Solon, Philopoemen, or Heraclitus

File:Ptolomeo Apión.JPG|Bust of Ptolemy Apion, from the square peristyle

File:Dionysos-Priapus MAN Napoli Inv5618 n02.jpg|alt=|Dionysus or Plato, unknown locale within the villa

File:Archytas of Taras.jpg|Bearded man with turban, originally identified as Archytas of Tarentum, but now considered to be Pythagoras

File:Seleukos I Nikator Bronze Roman 100BCE-100CE Museo Archeologico Nazionale Naples AN 5590 1.jpg|Seleukos I Nikator, unknown locale within the villa

File:Young Commander MAN Napoli Inv5588.jpg|So-called "Young Commander", found in the rectangular peristyle, now unidentified Hellenistic ruler or Eumenes II, founder of the Library of Pergamum

File:Eracle, da villa dei papiri, peristilio rettangolare, 01.JPG|Young Heracles, found in the rectangular peristyle

File:Naples Museum 60 (15159162952).jpg|Possibly Scipio Africanus, or a priest of Isis, from the tablinum

File:Busto di epicuro, da villa papiri ercolano, copia romana da orig. del 250 ac. ca, MANN.JPG|Epicurus, Roman copy of 250 BCE original

File:Filosofo detto eraclito, da villa dei papiri, peristilio quadrato.JPG|Possibly Heraclitus or Empedocles, from the square peristyle

File:Ptolemy II MAN Napoli Inv5600.jpg|Ptolemaic ruler, probably Ptolemy II Philadelphus

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Statues

File:Satiro ebbro, da villa dei papiri, peristilio rettangolare, 01.JPG|Statue of a drunken satyr, from the Villa

File:Napoli, museo archeologico (8105951693).jpg|Hermes, in repose or resting

File:Runners MAN Napoli Inv5626-7 n02.jpg|Bronze athletes, identified as either runners or wrestlers, from the square peristyle

File:Napoli, museo archeologico (8105965210).jpg|Sleeping satyr, Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum

File:Fawn MAN Napoli Inv4888.jpg|Fawn

File:Bronze piglet from Herculaneum (Naples MAN 4893).jpg|Piglet

File:Cabra y Pan Papiri 01.JPG|Group of Pan and a goat, Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum (now in the Secret Room at the Naples National Archaeological Museum)

File:Notabile romano, da villa dei papiri, peristilio rettangolare.JPG|Roman notable, square peristyle, Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum

File:Naples Archaeology Museum (5914747108).jpg|Athena, tablinum, Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum

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Illustrations

Illustrations included scenes with: Head with the wreathed helmet (Pyrrhus of Epirus?), Archimedes (Archidamus III?), Attilius Regulus (Philetairus of Pergamum?), Pseudo-Seneca (Philetas of Cos?), Berenice, Heraclitus, Ptolemy Lathyrus, Ptolemy Soter II, Sappho, Warrior in a helmet, Scipio Africanus, Head of a Vestal (woman unknown), Hannibal or Juba, and Head with a headdress. a female philosopher who was mentored by the Epicurean American founding father, Thomas Jefferson, and it unapologetically defends Epicurus's character, Epicurean philosophy, and secular values.

Several scenes in Robert Harris's bestselling novel Pompeii are set in the Villa of the Papyri, just before the eruption engulfed it. The villa is mentioned as belonging to Roman aristocrat Pedius Cascus and his wife Rectina. (Pliny the Younger mentions Rectina, whom he calls the wife of Tascius, in Letter 16 of book VI of his Letters. At the start of the eruption, Rectina prepared to have the library evacuated and sent urgent word to her old friend, Pliny the Elder, who commanded the Roman Navy at Misenum on the other side of the Bay of Naples. Pliny immediately sent out in a warship that got in sight of the villa, but the eruption prevented him from landing and taking off Rectina and her library – which was left for modern archaeologists to find.)

References

External links

The Villa of Papyri artifacts on view at the Naples National Archaeology Museum
Papyri herculanensi online
The Friends of Herculaneum Society
Bourbon Excavation Excavation of the Villa
Philodemus Project website
Roman Herculaneum website
"Millionaire to fund dig for lost Roman library", The Sunday Times (London) February 13, 2005
American Society of Mechanical Engineers: Henry Baumgartner, "New light on ancient scrolls" 2002
J. Paul Getty Museum
In search of Western civilisation's lost classics, The Australian, August 6, 2008
2015 New Yorker article about the villa