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. This was the second roll whose midollo was unrolled using the 'machine' of Father Piaggio (in 1756); Piaggio was so pleased with the way it came off the roll in a continuous sheet, that he insisted in a lengthy memorial to the Bourbon Secretary of State that this papyrus not be cut into shorter pieces for display on the museum wall, but rather preserved as one piece and displayed in a specially-built wooden case.
Several other pieces (scorze or 'bark') of the roll whose end is the midollo PHerc. 1672 have been identified: PHerc. 408, 409, 1117, 1573, 1574. Some of the fragments grouped under these inventory numbers represent the second copy of bits of text also found in PHerc. 1674 and in the fragmentary initial parts of that same roll.
PHerc. 1672 column 10, lines 1-12 (tentative reconstruction): e)mpei/-|| rous kai\ tw=n a)/llwn, o(/ti ou) | tau/thi tou=to [le/]gomen pa| ri/stasqai, plh\[n] ei) prosa/ge| tai tau=q' o(/mws dia\ th=s gra| fh=s. kai\ ta)=lla peri/semn[on] | [[n]] ei) dioikei=tai, pare/ntes | ka[i\] pa[ra]deja/menoi pa/n| ta to\ pa=n sxedo\n bubli/on | katesxhko/ta, to\ de\ me/ros | e)kei=no mo/non hghsa/me| noi pros au(tou/s, di' ou(= f[[a]]hsi[[n]] | r(htw=s ta)/texna [[ta]] me/rh |
PHerc. 1574, a stack of scorze which were separated by attaching goldbeater's-skin to the back of each successive piece and removing it from those on its interior side; unlike the method of beginning from the interior layer and scratching away each successive layer, this method preserves the internal layers. Note that the outline of each successive piece is not identical, presumably due to the loss of material at the edges, which stuck to other layers.
The top portion of the first (presumably the outermost) fragment of PHerc. 1574.
PHerc. 1573, the outermost layer of a stack of scorze: this is what remained after each of the interior layers of the stack had been copied and scraped away.
The top half of the surviving (outermost, but drawn as the last-numbered fragment) layer of the stack of scorze inventoried as PHerc. 1117.