The Vatican Secret Archives have an efficient Laboratory for the conservation of their precious heritage.
Modern equipment, together with the best materials and the latest intervention techniques are employed to contrast the deterioration of the documents written on parchment and paper. Also leathers, works of art on paper or parchment medium - that can sometimes be very large - and photographs, are treated.
The Conservation Laboratory, located in specifically designed settings, is set out on two levels and divided into different areas: the entire upper floor is dedicated to the “traditional” treatment of the materials and to a detailed photographic documentation of the interventions; on the lower floor there are specially equipped areas where wet treatments are performed. The preparation of products necessary for the laboratory and the chemical and microscopic tests on the documents are performed in a special room. On the lower floor there is also a bindery.
From the logistic point of view, the rational disposition of the equipment allows an optimal workflow.
The equipment available was chosen according to its versatility, thus allowing the possibility to deal with as many interventions as possible on the extensive variety of codicological and documentary items. The equipment also includes an ultrasound vaporizer for localized interventions of consolidation, three types of suction tables (one equipped with a transmitted light illumination system; another one has a dome-shaped ultrasound humidification system; and finally the third one has a device to treat pages without dismantling the books), a leaf-casting machine, many dryers, two fixed basins for treatments in aqueous solutions and systems for aqueous and non-aqueous deacidification.
The Laboratory employs different techniques, according to the structure of the material: for example, before the main intervention, it is necessary to write out the documentation form and the restoration project, and produce a photographic documentation. According to the work project, the material can be dusted and, only if absolutely necessary, dismantled to perform further wet treatments (including the use of phytate solutions and deacidification chemicals). Then the item is assembled again, always considering the possibility that the original materials can be used again, which however only in extraordinary circumstances can be very carefully substituted, reducing to the minimum the alteration of the original structure of the handmade item.
Also the covers of the registers can be treated and reattached to the original codicological item; when this is not feasible, the covers are in any case kept in appropriate containers.
However, it is often possible to avoid totally dismantling the registers: sections of the manuscript can be treated separately, thus limiting the interventions to the consolidation of the original structure or to the restoration of the single deteriorated leaves.
Restorations on paper can be done with the leaf-casting machine or with more traditional intervention techniques, such as the preparation on a light table of the silhouettes of the pieces of paper that will then be used to repair any holes. A similar approach is adopted for parchments, both in the case of single documents and in the case of register files.
The bindery deals with modern material and the indexes produced by the Officiali of the Archives, and the conditioning of the most recent materials, especially those coming from the Secretariat of State and the Archives of the Nunciatures. The increasing need for such interventions has justified the purchase of an electromechanical sewing machine that has resolved the inconveniences brought about by the great amount of modern material to be bound.
Of the other activities of the Laboratory, we would like to mention the cooperation with other Vatican bodies in the preparation of archival material exhibitions.
THE PROTECTION OF THE ARCHIVAL MATERIALS
Another Laboratory, that deals with the boxing of archival material, actively collaborates with the conservation unit.
By means of a plotter equipped with a special device that draws, folds and cuts cardboard, it is possible to produce boxes of any size that allow a proper preservation of the each item, employing special types of long-lasting cardboard.
The staff, after selecting the archival collection requiring treatment, start the work by assessing the conservation status of every single item; the dust is removed with a special vacuum cleaner and the item dimensions are measured. Once the data are collected, they are put into a special program that develops the model of the box chosen according to the dimensions requested.
The plotter creates flat boxes, which are then manually folded by the staff.
After sticking a label with the shelf-mark on the box, the item is lodged in its own special box and put back in its place.
Between 2000 and 2004 this machine has produced over 25,000 boxes for just as many archival items.
