PHerc. 353, Scriptor Graecus incertus, Opus incertum. Ricostruzione ed edizione

PHerc. 353 contains an unknown philosophical work, which is unpublished. The scroll was unrolled in ten pieces of various dimensions by Gennaro Braibanti between 1804 and 1805. Three Oxonian and twelve Neapolitan drawings were realised at different times, the last ones were engraved and printed in the 9th Volume of the Collectio Altera. The first scholar who briefly mentioned the content of PHerc. 353 was Crönert: on the basis of some readings in the drawing «frammento III», he suggested to assign this papyrus to Philodemus’ Περὶ μανίαϲ, which is also preserved in PHerc. 57. This hypothesis was confirmed by Bassi, who identified in PHerc. 353 another book of the same treatise. The aim of this work is the publication of an edition of the text, based on the criteria universally adopted in modern editions of texts preserved on papyrus. The bibliological reconstruction of the roll, based on the observations of the morphological features and the structure of the fragments, allowed to determine the original order of the surviving pieces and to create a virtual reconstruction of the roll (i. e., maquette). These achievements were essential to read the extant portions of the text properly and to verify the assumptions about the author and the content of the work preserved in this scroll.