page_title: Herculaneum papyri
section_title: Unrolling
hierarchical_section_title: Herculaneum papyri / Unrolling
caption_attribution_description: English: Image from book: Tesoro letterario di Ercolano, ossia, la reale officina dei papiri ercolanesi, Stamperia e cartiere del Fibreno, Naples, 1858. Italiano: Immagine dal libro: Tesoro letterario di Ercolano, ossia, la reale officina dei papiri ercolanesi, Stamperia e cartiere del Fibreno, Napoli, 1858.
context_page_description: 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. Most of the works discovered are associated with the Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemus of Gadara.
context_section_description: 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. 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.
caption: Carbonized paper, found with other images in an 1858 published book by Giacomo Castrucci.[8]
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