Report of the committee appointed to superintend the experiments of Dr. Sickler, for the purpose of proving the efficacy of a method . . . for unrolling and deciphering the Herculaneum manuscripts

House of Commons. Report of the committee appointed to superintend the experiments of Dr. Sickler, for the purpose of proving the efficacy of a method, proposed by him for unrolling and deciphering the Herculaneum manuscripts. 7pp. [London:] N.p., 19 March 1818. 320 x 199 mm. Unbound; stitched. Very good to fine

First Edition. In 1816 the King of the Two Sicilies presented twelve heavily charred papyrus rolls found at Herculaneum to the Prince Regent, George IV. Sickler, a German archeologist, had devised a new method for unrolling the fragile rolls, and the British government brought him to England and paid him to carry out the project. Unfortunately, it appears that Sickler's method consisted of soaking the rolls in water until they were malleable and unrolling them from there. This method washed away any remnants of ink on the papyrus or caused the layers of the papyrus to crumble, rendering them useless for scholars. Sickler inadvertently destroyed seven of the twelve rolls, and a Parliamentary committee was established to investigate Sickler's methods. Parliament ended up removing Sickler from the project, and Humphry Davy, a member of the Parliamentary committee, was then commissioned to work on the rolls. Davy's method, which used chlorine, had greater (though still very limited) success, and in 1820 a volume containing watercolors of some of the best-preserved samples was presented to George IV.