La sala centrale è dotata di pannelli didattici descrittivi (italiano-inglese) sulla cultura libraria del territorio: il “Culto dei libri sibillini”, le “Biblioteche dell’antica Tibur”, i “Magistri cartari di Tivoli dal XV° al XIX° secolo”, la “Stampa e gli artigiani del libro” ed altri ancora in un continuum museo-territorio che li rende parte dello stesso tessuto culturale e civile che, fuori del laboratorio – museo, si dispiega nel territorio di Tivoli e nelle aree circostanti.
Il centro offre ai visitatori disabili della vista un percorso specifico dal titolo: “Villa d’Este e il Museo Didattico del Libro Antico”, in triplice edizione:
- characters readable by visually impaired people, accompanied by the floor plan of Villa d’Este;
- Braille characters for the blind, accompanied by raised drawings;
- recorded in audio edition on CD and MP3 support for people unable to read. A unique initiative of its kind in the national territory.
For the activities, wooden tools and presses from the 18th-19th centuries 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 is carried out, as it happened in ancient Tibur in the 15th and 16th centuries, all centered on teaching methodologies that encourage maximum student participation.
The Villa d’Este Laboratory houses objects of considerable historical interest including: linen books, papyri, codices from the churches of Tivoli, parchments, incunabula, engravings and watercolors of the fountains of Villa d’Este. The center, which promotes research in an ever-active interactive relationship with Museums and Universities, has benefited from the collaboration of 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 Louvain, the Academy of Sciences in Washington, the Smithsonian Institution – Washington D.C. – USA and other prestigious institutions in the sector.
In the didactic laboratory of Villa d’Este, valuable book documents of public interest have been technically and scientifically reconstructed on behalf of Institutes, Museums and Universities, among which we remember:
- reconstruction of the book Per Em Eru, a papyrus scroll 11 meters long in hieratic script for the Egyptian section of the Vatican Museums;
- reconstruction of the illuminated volume in hieroglyphic script, 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, tabulae ceratae and dealbatae, lead engravings etc.) of the Imperial Library of Emperor Hadrian of 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 carries out study, restoration and technical-scientific reconstruction of papyrus, paper and parchment documents.
