The talk will serve as an introduction to this remarkable discovery and the treatment of its books of Herculaneum. David Blank is a student of ancient philosophy, from the Presocratics to the alter Platonists. He has worked especially on philosophy of language and philology in antiquity. He has also worked extensively on the Herculaneum Papyri and is editing several papyri Philodemus' On Rhetoric. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at UCLA.