We would like to drop you a line about a very curious and unusual piece of news: the Papyrus of Artemidorus’ one.

Beyond the exceptional nature of this find, that is the most ancient geographic map of the classical world, we are pleasantly astonished at the very original story of this piece of paper.

Between the first century B.C. and the first century A.C., geographer Artemidorus of Ephesus, while he is making a geographic map of Spanish territories, realized that the map is drawn in a wrong place on the papyrus.

What can he do? The geographer throws away everything and our papyrus’life begins from this act: in a short time it becomes a “workshop notebook” and in a different form comes alive with beautiful drawings representing mythical animals.

Our papyrus, not yet satisfied, from notebook turns into artist’s sketch pad used for copy practice by the artists of the same workshop, then it ends its life as part of a mummy’s wrapping.

It’s very intriguing to know the way of this ancient object, that, in its simple life, puts us in contact with culture, creativity and history of men who lived in another age.

So, we have time until 7^th May 2006 to admire this mythical papyrus and enjoy the exhibition in the Olympic Turin, at Palazzo Bricherasio. Let us know what you are thinking about it…At this time, we look in a different way the sheets we throw away…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 10:37 am and is filed under italian art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.