Ancient scribes used rows and columns on papyri: grids emerged on Herculaneum papyri

Ancient scribes also used different types of grids to demarcate the writing mirror on papyri. The first scientific confirmation of this custom, which classical authors had passed down to us, comes from research conducted by the University of Pisa, CNR and Infn, by the working group of ERC Advanced Grant Project 885222-GreekSchools(https://greekschools.eu/), coordinated by Professor Graziano Ranocchia of the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics of the University of Pisa, and dedicated to the analysis with advanced techniques of the carbonized papyri of Herculaneum, kept at the Vittorio Emanuele III National Library in Naples. The study that led to this important discovery is presented in the journal Scientific Reports, published by Nature portfolio.

Resulting from the collaboration of physicists, chemists and papyrologists, the publication showed for the first time the presence of various types of grids in the Greek book rolls of antiquity. It was already known from classical authors that ancient scribes used a ruler and a lead washer for this purpose, which when rubbed on the surface of the papyrus left a faintly visibletrace that served to trace the boundaries of the writing mirror. Never until now had any trace of this been evinced in the innumerable papyri that have come down to us from antiquity, to the point that modern scholars have pored over the significance of such evidence for decades. Scanning X-ray macro-fluorescence experiments carried out on Herculaneum papyri in the National Library of Naples by the team of Dr. Paolo Romano, of the Cultural Heritage Science Institute of the CNR (Cnr-Ispc) in Catania, Italy, and the National Laboratories of the South of theINFN National Institute of Nuclear Physics have provided experimental proof that this information is correct. Thanks to portable instrumentation developed in Cnr-Ispc with the MUR PON IR SHINE project, different types of grids consisting of lead lines arranged orthogonally in order to delineate intercolumnar spaces, columns, intercolumns and single lines of writing were revealed for the first time.

“This is a sensational discovery for papyrology,” said Professor Graziano Ranocchia. “We now have confirmation of what we could only imagine before. It is also finally proven that the systematic tilting of the writing columns in literary scrolls, the so-called Maas’s Law, was an intentional aesthetic fact of ancient scribes, and not a sign of lack of graphic accuracy, as has been assumed by some.”

“The development of noninvasive instrumentation and methods for in situ analysis is bringing important advances in cultural heritage diagnostics,” added Dr. Costanza Miliani, director of the CNR-Ispc, “in particular the XRF scanner developed by CNR-Ispc for the MOLAB access platform of theE-RIHS research infrastructure makes it possible to reveal valuable information on the chemical composition and distribution of elements thanks to unparalleled sensitivity and spatial resolution, such as for the ultra-trace lead residuals of the writing lines of the Herculaneum papyri.”

Great satisfaction was also expressed by the director of the National Library of Naples, Dr. Maria Iannotti, who from the beginning of her tenure has strongly believed in the need to forge collaborations with universities and research institutions for the enhancement of the Institute’s huge heritage that she heads: “This is a new beginning for studies concerning our collections and a model of institutional cooperation to be extended to other cases of the same kind. In my opinion, conservation and research must go hand in hand and must communicate with each other to the benefit of both.”

This collaboration, which sees the National Library of Naples for the first time a co-beneficiary of a project funded by the European Commission, is also strengthened by the recent signing of special agreements with both the CNR-Ispc and the University of Pisa.

“Since the Department I lead decided to host the GreekSchools Project,” concluded the director of the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics, Professor Roberta Ferrari, “the opportunities for institutional collaboration and public visibility of our activities research have significantly increased, including with the attraction of other funded projects and the recent important ministerial recognition of the Department of Excellence 2023-2027, which with the CECIL Project is proposed as a vanguard in the fight against language impoverishment.”

Pictured are the grids that emerged from the Herculaneum papyri. Photo CNR

Ancient scribes used rows and columns on papyri: grids emerged on Herculaneum papyri

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