A new tool for looking into the past that leads to fantasies of reading lost works of literature

In the January 21, 2015 issue of The New York Times, Nicholas Wade writes about the use of x-ray computed tomography by researchers at the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (Naples, Italy) to visualize the letters inside of the lumps of carbonized plant material that were, before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, papyrus scrolls in the library of the grand villa at Herculaneum (“Unlocking Scrolls Preserved in Eruption of Vesuvius, Using X-Ray Beams”). Although being able to see free floating letters is a far cry from viewing full texts, it is hard not to fantasize about reading lost works and original texts of Latin and Greek literature.