A Few of My Favorite Things

Books and Architecture or Architecture and Books. Almost half way through Swerve: How the World Became Modern and the reader is introduced to the Villa Papyri, a partially excavated home in Herculaneum, in the shadow of Vesuvius. Here are a few images I dug up when taking a break from the reading.

The plan is known from tunnels excavated in the volcanic ash

Charred cylinders - which turned about to be papyrus scrolls from the Villa owners private library - and which gave the place its name. Some of these have been opened and the works have been identified.

J Paul Getty like the published plan so much he had it recreated in Malibu.