Historical Unfolding and Virtual Unwrapping of the Papyri from the Villa dei Papiri

Abstract The scrolls from Herculaneum, discovered in 1752, were carbonized from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and have endured more than 250 years of attempts at physical restoration. In this article we summarize early attempts at physical interventions to support scholarly advancements, which have now completely given way to modern technical approaches.

One of the most promising new methods is termed “virtual unwrapping,” invented for the analysis of completely closed scrolls, of which there are still several hundred. This noninvasive approach is based on X-ray computed tomography followed by specialized computer algorithms that have demonstrated the possibility that much more text from the damaged Herculaneum collection can be obtained without the need to resume attempts at physical restoration.