The Exhibition “Villa dei Papiri” Inaugurated in Madrid

The Exhibition on Ercolano’s “Villa dei Papiri” and its library was inaugurated in Madrid, the only that reached our days from classical antiquity.

The exhibition, supported by the Regional Administration of Culture of Regione Campania, has been organised by Casa del Lector, the Virtual Archaeological Museum of Ercolano, the National Library of Naples, and by the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

The Real Academia delle Belle Arti di San Fernando, the Madrid National Archaeological Museum, and the Natural Science Museum - CSIC.Y have participated, with the contribution of the Embassies of Italy and Spain and the Italian Culture Institute of Madrid.

The exposition virtually recreates the Villa’s rooms and a selection of works of art and prestigious archaeological pieces, thanks to which it is possible to get closer to the acts of reading and writing as they were in ancient Rome, and to a rereading of the seventeenth century, when the Excavations brought to light the treasures and made them be renown all over the world.

"The support that the Regional Minister of Cultural Promotion of Regione Campania has assured to the exhibition ‘La Villa dei Papiri’ in Madrid – has declared the Regional Minister Caterina Miraglia – in included in a programme for promotion that we have been realising for a long time, convinced that culture as a resource is strategic and fundamental for Regione Campania.

“The initiative of MAV if fully part of the lines we set, and we believe that every effort should be made so that the museum system of Campania and its extraordinary cultural treasures might foster a new economic, social and touristic development of the entire Region”, concluded the Regional Minister of Culture of Campania.    

"This is – added the MAV director Ciro Cacciola – an extraordinary event which concludes a two-year project that saw the engagement of the technicians of MAV, professionals of great competence and experience, in close cooperation with important cultural institutions such as the National Library and the Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Archaeological Museum of Madrid, the Academy of Fine Arts of San Ferdinando. Thanks to this exhibition the MAV strengthens its international position and consolidates the project for the valorisation of the archaeological heritage of Ercolano and of the Vesuvius area in the world, one of its main and most important institutional purposes. We have created an exhibition which tells the Roman period in a new and original way, focusing on reading and writing, and on Ercolano and its Villa dei Papiri, with one the most extraordinary testimonies received from the past: papyri”.

Abbiamo costruito una mostra che racconta in modo nuovo e originale l'epoca romana, focalizzando l'attenzione sul tema della lettura e della scrittura, ponendo al centro Ercolano e la sua Villa dei Papiri e una delle più straordinarie testimonianze che ci sono pervenute dal passato, i papiri”.