REVIEW of Victoria C. Gardner Coates, Jon L. Seydl, Antiquity Recovered. The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.06.48
Victoria C. Gardner Coates, Jon L. Seydl, Antiquity Recovered. The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007. Pp. 304; figs. 121. ISBN 978-0-89236-872-3. $60.00.


Reviewed by Eric M. Moormann, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (e.moormann@let.ru.nl)
Word count: 2374 words

below is the part of the review dealing with the Herculaneum papyri

James Porter contributes a paper on the discovery of ancient texts in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. No new text of Aeschylus, Homer or Livy or any other major author was discovered among the carbonised scrolls. He sketches how eagerly scholars dismissed the importance of the texts by Philodemus, which are interesting in their own right. Porter presents a sound debunking of the romantic vision of the villa as a philosophical retreat, e.g. of Calpurnius Piso, with Philodemus as the pet philosopher. We cannot deduce that from the facts. Even the 'library' was nothing but crates and heaps of papyri found in disorder. Porter rides his hobbyhorse in stressing the problem of classicism (or not) in these texts and concludes that the readers of these texts were strongly deluded by Antiquity, which offered a different face than they wished.2 He refers to suggestions of new excavations to find more texts and apparently does not know of the dig made in the 1990s at the behest of the then director of the Papyrological Institute at Naples, Marcello Gigante. More or less unpublished, offering almost nothing to either archaeologist or tourist, these new ruins at the northern side of excavated Herculaneum are decaying rapidly.3 All these disappointments, however, did not prevent literary reactions: the number of literary texts "found at Herculaneum" increased incredibly in the run of the 18th century. I mention only the pamphlet cited supra and the Voyages d'Antenor en Grèce et en Asie, presumably translated from a Greek manuscript from Herculaneum by E.-F. Lanthier in 1795.

read the whole review here

CONFERENCE: VILLA OF THE PAPYRI: archaeology, reception and digital reconstruction

VILLA OF THE PAPYRI:
archaeology, reception and digital reconstruction

Christ Church College, Oxford (September 22-23, 2007)


Speakers:

Archaeology: David Sider (NYU)
Harald Mielsch (Universität Bonn)
Carol Mattusch (George Mason University)
Antonio De Simone (Università Suor Orsola Benincasa Napoli)

Reception: Dana Arnold (University of Southampton)
Kenneth Lapatin (Getty Museum)

Digital reconstruction: Mantha Zarmakoupi (University of Oxford)
Diane Favro (UCLA)



The Villa of the Papyri is a unique archaeological site and, although still largely underground, has been very influential in the field of classical studies and the modern imagination owing to its discovery and underground exploration in the 18th century. The papyri (the only intact library to survive from Greco-Roman antiquity) and bronze sculptures found in the villa have contributed to our knowledge and understanding of the ancient world and the architecture of the villa has inspired today’s architects and tycoons. This villa has become for us the “ideal model” of Roman luxury villa culture. It is also an object of much international attention in debates about excavation, restoration, and management of archaeological sites. The purpose of this conference is to address the cultural significance of this ancient site in its contemporary Roman context as well as its cultural reception since its discovery in the late 18th century, and address the ways in which digital archaeology may assist our efforts to understand and investigate such sites. Papers from leading experts will address the importance of the Villa’s architecture (Harald Miesch) and findings, especially papyri (David Sider) and sculptures (Carol Mattusch), tackle their reception since the Villa’s discovery in the late 18th century (Kenneth Lapatin, Dana Arnold), and present the current state of the excavations in the Villa (Antonio De Simone). Furthermore, a digital model of the Villa that incorporates the data from the new excavations will be presented (Mantha Zarmakoupi) and the conference will conclude with a discussion on the ways in which this digital model may be used for educational and research purposes (Diane Favro).

Supported by The Friends of Herculaneum Society
Contact and registration: Mantha Zarmakoupi, mzarmakoupi@post.harvard.edu

Source: Rogue Classicism; In general, see the Philodemus Project

REVIEW of David Sider, The library of the Villa dei Papiri

Wm. A. Johnson
Journal of Roman archaeology. 19, (2006): 493

Also reviewed in BMCR by Jan P. Stronk.

cover and contents
Gettty bookstore

Source: Worldcat

Victoria C GARDNER COATES; Jon L SEYDL, Antiquity recovered : the legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum

Publication of the papers from a 2002 conference.


Description
Beginning in 1709, when their antiquities first were recovered, Pompeii and Herculaneum have exercised the historical imagination of the West. This volume presents a diverse array of response to the sites, tracing how perceptions of the past have changed over the course of three centuries of excavations, what the editors call "the strata of interpretation." The thirteen essays range in subject from a reassessment of the contents of the library at Herculaneum's Villa of the Papyri to the symbolic appearance of the ancient world in such films as Roberto Rossellini's Voyage in Italy and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt .
Antiquity Recovered explores the complexities of "the reception of the past" and helps enhance our understanding of the roles these cities have played, and continue to play, in Western culture.
Product Details
304 pages; 8 x 10; ISBN13: 978-0-89236-872-3ISBN10: 0-89236-872-1

abstract of Porter's paper
About the Author(s)
Victoria C. Gardner Coates is a lecturer in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jon L. Seydl is associate curator of paintings at the Getty Museum.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Victoria C. Gardner Coates and Jon L. Seydl

Natural Marvels and Ancient Ruins: Volcanism and the Recovery of Antiquity in Early Modern Naples
Sean Cocco

Subverting the Secret of Herculaneum: Archaeological Espionage in the Kingdom of Naples
Alden R. Gordon

From Art to Archaeology: Recontextualizing the Images from the Porticus of Herculaneum
Tina Najbjerg

Four Women from Stabiae: Eighteenth-century Antiquarian Practice and the History of Ancient Roman Painting
Hérica Valladares

Hearing Voices: The Herculaneum Papyri and Classical Scholarship
James I. Porter

Picnic at Pompeii: Hyperbole and Digression in the Warm South
Chloe Chard

The Visible and the Visual: Pompeii and Herculaneum in the Getty Research Institute Collections
Claire L. Lyons and Marcia Reed

The Sentinel of Pompeii: An Exemplum for the Nineteenth Century
Lee Behlman

Science or Morbid Curiosity?: The Casts of Giuseppe Fiorelli and the Last Days of Romantic Pompeii
Eugene Dwyer

"A Picture Painted in Fire": Pain's Re-enactments of the Last Days of Pompeii, 1879-1914
Nick Yablon

Replicating Roman Murals in Pompeii: Archaeology, Art, and Politics in Italy of the 1920s
Elaine K. Gazda

Seeing Women in the Villa of the Mysteries: A Modern Excavation of the Dionysiac Murals
Bettina Bergmann

Odysseys of Life and Death in the Bay of Naples: Roberto Rossellini's Voyage in Italy and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt
Jennie Hirsh

Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:

Pompeii (Extinct city).
Herculaneum (Extinct city).
Pompeii (Extinct city) -- Civilization.
Herculaneum (Extinct city) -- Civilization.
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Italy -- Pompeii (Extinct city).
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Italy -- Herculaneum (Extinct city).
Naples Region (Italy) -- Antiquities.


Source: worldcat