The Laboratory for the restoration of the seals, established at the end of the 70s, deals with the protection and the improvement of the huge sphragistic patrimony preserved in the Vatican Secret Archives. The main objectives of the interventions are essentially the restoration, the preservation and the reproduction of sigillographic material.

  The interventions of restoration are carried out with forefront methods, designed for the different cases, in the attempt to reduce integrations to the minimum. Since performing a restoration means finding a remedy to the failure of a previous preservation system, the efforts of the laboratory focus on the so-called “preventive restoration”, in other words on the study and the creation of systems allowing a correct protection and preservation of the seals. The outline of the activities is completed by the systematic orientation of the reproduction of the most precious items, with the double purpose of avoiding handling the originals and encouraging initiatives for the cultural promotion of the sphragistic discipline.