Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum: Weber’s Map

The Weber Plan is the oldest and most complete map in our possession of the so-called Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, a luxurious Roman-era residence buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and rediscovered during the Bourbon excavations conducted between 1750 and 1761. Drawn in 1758 by the Swiss engineer Karl Weber, who directed the excavation, the plan remains the fundamental tool for studying the Villa of the Papyri.

The map traces the layout of the excavated rooms. The exploration began at a circular space paved with polychrome marbles—the Villa’s so-called “belvedere”—and continued through tunnels following a main straight gallery, the gruta derecha. This led to several rooms preceding an immense peristyle, approximately 100 meters long and 37 meters wide, which featured a grand swimming pool at its center. Surrounding the pool were exquisite bronze and marble statues, now preserved alongside the “belvedere” floor in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. At the far end of the peristyle lay the main rooms of the Villa, which included the tablinum, opening onto a square peristyle with a central basin, as well as several other living areas. The Villa’s library was likely located in this area. Indeed, between 1752 and 1754, the Bourbon excavations unearthed over a thousand carbonized papyri found inside cabinets, on the floor, or in capsae. The study and publication of these texts revealed that they contain works of ancient philosophy—predominantly Epicurean—that were not preserved by medieval tradition. It is a unique collection, now housed in the ‘M. Gigante’ Officina dei Papiri Ercolanesi within the National Library of Naples.

A fun fact: in Malibu, California, the tycoon J. Paul Getty built the Getty Villa (a museum of art) modeled after the Villa of the Papyri, using Weber’s plan as his primary reference!