The second book of Philodemus' treatise On Rhetoric survives in two copies, here labelled 'IIa' and 'IIb'. Copy IIa is preserved in a roll whose last portion ('midollo' or 'marrow', the last, interior windings of the roll), PHerc. 1674, consists of 12 'fragments' and 58 continuous columns of text. At the end of this roll is a notice giving the title, the generic indication 'hypomnematikon', and the number of lines (at least 4,200). The last ten columns of this roll overlap with the first eight of PHerc. 1672, which is labelled as book 2 of Philodemus' On Rhetoric. Thus, 1674 is another copy of the same book as 1672, only the latter's text continues for another 32 columns before reaching the end of the book. Apparently, the copy in PHerc. 1674 ran over onto a second papyrus roll, which does not survive, while the copy in PHerc. 1672, which is more compactly written, was made to fit onto one papyrus roll.
Several other pieces (scorze or 'bark') of the roll whose end is the midollo PHerc. 1674 have been identified: PHerc. 408, 425, 1079, 1086, 1580.
PHerc. 1674 cornice ('frame') 8, column 30, lines 7-16
PHerc. 1674 cornice 9, column 38, lines 7-16
PHerc. 1674 cornice 11, column 52, lines 10-12: At this point Philodemus begins his discussion of the Epicureans in Rhodes and Cos who argued against Zeno of Sidon claiming that, according to the founders of Epicureanism, no part of rhetoric was an expertise. The end of the preceding section of the text is marked with a diple (>), and the new argument (beginning with the word enioi, of which the first letter is visible in this photo), which was evidently of particular interest, is marked in the margin with the word 'Here' ([e]|nqa|de).
The middle portion of PHerc. 1079, the last remaining piece of a stack of scorze. Twelve of the layers above this one were drawn before 1839, but destroyed in order to get to the layers beneath them. Note that virtually no writing is visible on the badly damaged surface of this layer.
The upper portion of PHerc. 1580, the outermost layer of a stack of scorze. Again, the condition of the writing on this piece is rather disastrous.