(ANSA) - NAPLES, 21 MAY - 'Digital Restoration of theHerculaneum Papyri ": is the project financed by the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation that aims to recover the papyri found in a luxury residence in the ancient city of Herculaneum and now preserved at the National Library of Naples "Vittorio Emanuele III". On Tuesday 24 May at the Department of Humanities of the University of Naples Federico II, the American team will present the objectives and preliminary results of the initiative. Brent Seales, professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky and scientific director of the project, will be in Naples together with the project manager, Christy Chapman, and six students, part of his research group.
The papyrus scrolls were charred, compressed and compacted by the Vesuvian eruption of 79 AD. Many have not yet been carried out;
others have been opened over the centuries, with sometimes discreet, sometimes disastrous results.
Rolled rolls are also difficult to read, as the blackened surface makes it difficult to recognize the black ink.
The project, which sees as a partner the National Library "Vittorio Emanuele III" of Naples and the collaboration of the International Center for the Study of Herculaneum Papyri "Marcello Gigante", constitutes an investment of exceptional importance, which, using cutting-edge technologies, proposes a double objective: on the one hand, to improve the readability of the performed papyri,
through a new three-dimensional photographic campaign of the collection;
on the other hand, being able to virtually unroll the still closed scrolls, reaching the point of being able to read their writing in a non-invasive way and without actually altering their state.
(HANDLE).
