So far, they have retrieved only the word “porphyras,” purple in Greek. However, a computer scientist named Brent Seales believes he can eventually reveal the entire library of Piso, Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, from carbonized scrolls. He’s been working for 20 years. Recently a series of prizes encouraged a range of computer specialists to contribute expertise.
Deciphering Words Written in Charcoal on Carbonized Scrolls
The carbonized scrolls look more like lumps of coal than readable scrolls. The scribes used ink made of charcoal and water, which is pretty much what the whole thing is now. Reading the precious words seemed forever impossible. Scholars tried to unroll scrolls from a cache found in 1752. Instead, they destroyed them.
A complicated combination of techniques and scans has begun to produce results without the damage. Roughly speaking, first researchers distinguish ink from everything else. Second, they “unwrap the scrolls electronically and attach the letters to the proper surfaces.” While they’ve made impressive progress, there’s a long way to go.
Radical Transformation of the Classics
To have the complete library of a cultivated Roman would definitely “transform our knowledge of the ancient world in ways we can hardly imagine” as indicated in this article in the New York Times “Scrolls That Survived Vesuvius Divulge Their First Word.”
Besides surmounting the technical issues, there’s one other problem. The excavated 800 scrolls are from a more specialized library of an Epicurean philosopher who lived in the villa. The scrolls of the presumably much larger and more generally representative library of the Roman nobleman who owned the house have yet to be found during excavations. (The Herculaneum fresco at top gives a possible flavor of life in this villa, photo public domain, wiki.)
Still, we can dream of reading all hundred-plus plays of Sophocles or those lost books of Livy’s history or whatever other ancient works Julius Caesar’s father-in-law Piso fancied.
Further Reading
If you’d enjoy reading more about virtual unscrolling and reading of ancient scrolls burned in Vesuvius’s explosion, pop over to one of my past weekly roundup posts.