Diagnostic investigations on the Barberini harp

Abstract

In the frame of the CO.B.RA project, funded by the Lazio Regional Authority, ENEA carried out a series of diagnostic investigations on numerous instruments from the rich collection of the National Museum of Musical Instruments of Rome. This paper presents the results related to the study of the conservation status of one of the rarest and most significant museum’s instruments, the Barberini harp. To study the original wood essence, the decorative apparatus, the integrity of the instrument structure and to assess its conservation status, two types of diagnostic techniques were used: X-ray radiography and observation of micro-samples under scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Both the analysis methods performed enlighten the realisation techniques and materials of the Barberini harp as well as its state of conservation. The data collected from the diagnostic investigations, in particular those on the wood essence, will be useful for the building of modern instruments, having identical structural characteristics to the old ones, which could be played without the conservative problems connected to the handling of an instrument hundreds of years old, obtaining at the same time the same kind of sound.