The central hall is equipped with descriptive educational panels (Italian-English) on the local book culture: the “Cult of the Sibylline Books,” the “Libraries of Ancient Tibur,” the “Paper Masters of Tivoli from the 15th to the 19th Century,” “Printing and Book Artisans,” and more in a museum-territory continuum that makes them part of the same cultural and civil fabric, which, outside the laboratory-museum, unfolds in the territory of Tivoli and its surrounding areas.
The center offers visually impaired visitors a specific path titled: “Villa d’Este and the Educational Museum of the Ancient Book,” in three editions:
- characters legible by the visually impaired, accompanied by the map of Villa d’Este;
- Braille characters for the blind, accompanied by raised drawings;
- recorded in audio edition on CD and MP3 format for use by people unable to read. A unique initiative of its kind nationwide.
For activities, 18th-19th century wooden tools and presses are used, writing instruments from the Tiburtine Libraries, the Temple of Hercules, and the famous Library of Emperor Hadrian; illuminated papyri and parchments from the churches of Tivoli; printing and processing of rag paper are performed as it occurred in ancient Tibur in the 15th and 16th centuries, all focused on teaching methodologies that promote maximum student participation.
The Villa d’Este Laboratory preserves objects of significant historical interest including: linen books, papyri, church codices from Tivoli, parchments, incunabula, engravings, and watercolors of the fountains of Villa d’Este. The center, which promotes research in an ongoing interaction with Museums and Universities, has collaborated with the National Center for Scientific Research in Rome, the British Museum in London, the Vatican Museums, the University of Florence, the School of Papyrology in Leuven, the Academy of Sciences in Washington, the Smithsonian Institution – Washington D.C. – USA, and other prestigious institutions in the field.
In the Villa d’Este educational laboratory, valuable book documents of public interest have been technically and scientifically reconstructed on behalf of Institutes, Museums, and Universities, including:
- reconstruction of the book Per Em Eru, an 11-meter papyrus scroll in hieratic script for the Egyptian section of the Vatican Museums;
- reconstruction of the illuminated scroll in hieroglyphic writing, known as the “Papyrus of Kha,” for the Frank H. McClung Museum of the University of Tennessee U.S.A.;
- reconstruction of the book furniture (volumina with umbilici, codices, wax and whitened tablets, lead engravings, etc.) from the Imperial Library of Emperor Hadrian at the Museum of Roman Civilization (1996).
The Museum carries out educational activities for universities and schools of all levels, organizes conferences, hosts debates and international exhibitions. It conducts study, restoration, and technical-scientific reconstruction of papyrus, paper, and parchment documents.
