La Villa dei Papiri. Una residenza antica e la sua biblioteca

This book provides an exclusive perspective on the Villa of Herculaneum. Buried by the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 CE, the Villa is one of the most extraordinary discoveries in the field of classical antiquity. The authors examine the details of this find and highlight the papyri found there. Excavated in the 18th century, the Villa, in fact, houses the only surviving ancient library of Greek and Latin scrolls. It includes about a thousand carbonised, mostly Greek­, papyri, featuring texts of Hellenistic philosophy (especially of Epicurean and, to a lesser extent, Stoic origins), as well as some fragmented Latin papyri, with a variety of texts in both prose and verse. This book describes the adventuresome journey of the papyri through the history of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries – their unearthing, their unfolding, their deciphering. Today we witness an unprecedented reawakening of studies concerning this exceptional cultural treasure, in no small measure thanks to modern research technology.