Francesca Longo Auricchio, "The International Centre for the Study of the Herculaneum Papyri (CISPE)"

Marcello Gigante has recorded in several places that the idea of founding an international Centre to promote and organize the study of the texts of Herculaneum was born on the occasion of the 8th Congress of the Association Budé which took place in Paris in 1968, a little before the May ‘revolution’. Gigante was teaching at that time at Trieste, where he was Professor of Byzantine Philology, but he was educated in Naples, and from the earliest years of his academic life had nurtured his interest for the Herculaneum papyri. Two works of Philodemus particularly occupied him: On Death which, as is well known, is a fundamental document in Epicurean ethics, and On Frank Criticism, a skill which is for the adepts of the Garden an important implement in the formation of the good philosopher. On the latter Gigante presented a paper to the Paris congress and noted that he was practically the only person to speak on a Herculaneum text, except for Carlo Diano who treated a few columns of the 25th book of Epicurus’ On Nature, and Wolfgang Schmid who dedicated a talk to the importance of the Herculaneum papyri for the study of Epicureanism. Schmid had outlined the history of scholarship on these texts, on which Gigante remarked ‘Schmid’s brief account was a look at the past; where was the present?’ Leafing through the Proceedings of the congress, and pondering Olivier René Bloch’s contribution which surveys Epicurean scholarship and dedicates a chapter to the Herculaneum papyri, one notices right away that, a few sporadic exceptions apart, after the flourish of German editions between the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth, the study of the papyri languished.

In the course of the twentieth century the most favoured author was Epicurus: between 1928 and 1956 Achille Vogliano published some books of On Nature and, in 1960, the first edition of the complete works appeared, edited by Graziano Arrighetti, which, in its second edition of 1973, still represents the only comprehensive collection of the works of the Samian philosopher, after the Epicurea of Hermann Usener (which, however, does not include the Herculaneum papyri). Arrighetti points out that, important though they are, ‘none of the editions of Vogliano is complete’, in the sense that many fragments were omitted. This lack Arrighetti set out to remedy, while knowing very well how much work would still remain to be done.

As for the other authors of the Villa’s library, one may mention the edition of the fifth book of On Poems by the great Christian Jensen, and that of works of Demetrius Laco by the young Vittorio De Falco, both in 1923; the edition of Book 4 of Philodemus’ On Music by the Dutch scholar van Krevelen in 1939, and On Signs by the American husband-and-wife team Phillip and Estelle De Lacy in 1941, though these last two were prepared on the basis of apographs, without the control of the original papyri.

The only scholar to work in Naples in the decades before 1968 was Francesco Sbordone, who in 1948 published a polemical work of Philodemus directed at members of the school. Subsequently Sbordone completed some studies and partial editions of Philodemus, On Poems, and oversaw the resumption of work in the Officina dei Papiri (Office of Papyri) after its dramatic interruption in World War II.

It is understandable then that in spring 1968 Gigante, finding himself sole witness in Paris to the study of the Herculaneum papyri, felt disappointed, mortified even, given that at that time he was representing the University of Trieste, whereas Naples, where the papyri are preserved, was absent.

Shortly afterwards Gigante was called to the chair of Greek and Latin at the University of Naples and was able to realise his idea of creating a Centre which would stimulate and sustain the study of the Herculaneum rolls, and promote the resumption of the excavation of the Villa of the Papyri, which Bruno Snell had hoped for in 1965 on the occasion of the 11th International Congress of Papyrology in Milan. So in March 1969 the International Centre for the Study of the Herculaneum Papyri, which today bears Gigante’s name, was founded. Taking part were Vittorio De Falco, Bruno Snell, Phillip De Lacy, Reinhold Merkelbach, Wolfgang Schmid, Anton Fackelmann, Alfonso de Franciscis, Massimo Fittipaldi, Giovanni Pugliese Caratelli, Francesco Sbordone, and Graziano Arrighetti. Gigante was its Secretary, a position he held for many years, and De Falco was named President.

The first step towards ‘an efficient and systematic study of the papyri’ was to prepare a Catalogue which would furnish all the essential data and bibliography. The undertaking required many years of work, and was successfully completed in 1979. Two Supplements appeared at intervals of ten years, in 1989 and 2000. In 2005 a Multimedia Catalogue, Χάρτης (Chartes), was produced, comprising all the data of the preceding issues and offering much potential for research. Moreover, each papyrus is accompanied by a digital image which gives an idea of its script and of the condition of the roll.

Complementary to the Catalogue was the bibliographical database compiled by I.C. McIlwaine, in two volumes: Herculaneum. A Guide to printed sources, which was published by the Centre in 1988. We expect to publish a Supplement prepared by Dr McIlwaine considering works published between 1980 and 2005, which should be finished in 2007.

In April 1970 the Centre was visited by Professor Eric Turner and his assistant Walter Cockle; these scholars surveyed the facilities of the Officina and examined some papyri. Prof. Turner suggested the use of microscopes for reading the texts, and a Prefect Microscope was donated in January 1971 by the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. Thereafter with funds from the National Research Council of Italy, Francesco Sbordone acquired two binocular Galilei microscopes which we used for many years until acquiring more recently two electronic, illuminated microscopes. In fact Achille Vogliano had already employed this tool for reading Herculaneum papyri, but its use was not widespread among scholars in the field.

Among the first initiatives undertaken by the Centre was the establishment of bursaries for young Italian and foreign scholars wishing to work on the Herculaneum papyri. The first was given to a Japanese scholar, Eiko Kondo, unfortunately recently deceased, who spent some years in Naples studying a papyrus of Philodemus which discusses vices related to flattery. Many young scholars followed her; over the course of many years, the Centre has granted more than a hundred bursaries. In many cases, our alumni are no longer students of Herculaneum papyrology, but many still retain a lively interest; I am sure however that the Herculaneum experience was an important moment in the education of all. Among the young students who came to Naples in the first years I mention my friend David Sedley, who was directed to the study of Herculaneum texts by Turner, his teacher. The result of his stay was a fine edition of one of the most important books of Epicurus’ On Nature, the 28th, in addition to various significant studies on other texts; last February in London, in the prestigious setting of the British Academy, he presented an extremely interesting outline of Greek philosophy in the first century B.C., in which Philodemus of Gadara had a not insignificant role.

With the agreement of A. de Franciscis, at that time Superintendent of Archaeology, Gigante in 1972 decided to arrange a reprint of a fundamental work on the Villa of the Papyri and its contents, both archaeological and literary: the volume by D. Comparetti and G. De Petra, La Villa ercolanese dei Pisoni. I suoi monumenti e la sua biblioteca (The Villa of the Pisones at Herculaneum. Its Monuments and Library), published in Turin in 1883. The work is still today an important tool on account of the collaboration of its two editors, De Petra, an archaeologist, and Comparetti, a philologist.