# Excavations at the Villa of the Papyri begin to recover carbonised Epicurean rolls

Date: 1752

## The fact

From 1752 Bourbon excavations at Herculaneum recovered carbonised papyrus rolls later identified as an Epicurean working library, including Philodemus and some of On Nature. The dated public instrument is that find-and-unrolling programme, not the 79 eruption.

## Context

Many rolls were destroyed by early unrolling. Later Oxford and Naples imaging saved more.

[Epicurus](/people/epicurus) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official edition, museum, archive, or agency page and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Herculaneum Society / Oxford Herculaneum research portal (https://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk/; University of Oxford / Herculaneum Society).

## Significance

A carbonised library find is a primary-text access path. It is not an autograph of every line.

A carbonised library find is a primary-text access path. It is not an autograph of every line.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Epicurus: https://factrail.ai/people/epicurus

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk/
- https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/829/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/ep-herculaneum-papyri-recovery