Raman characterization of XIV–XVI centuries Sardinian documents: Inks, papers and parchments

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy has been utilized to study ancient documents conserved at the University Library of Cagliari (Italy) with the aim to give an exhaustive scenario about the employment of inks, pigments and supporting materials (papers and parchments) related to specific historical periods (XIV–XV centuries). The samples studied are selected between the most prestigious texts present in the collection: two accounting books of sixteenth and fifteenth centuries, a mathematical text of the sixteenth century, a navigation text of the same period, a copy of the most important Sardinian medieval constitutional text “Carta De Logu”, a medieval copy of the famous Italian poem: “La Divina Commedia”. Finally we characterized a declared false of the nineteenth century reproducing a famous document of the XIII century.The present study gives fundamental knowledge on the history of different inks used in the manuscripts and also on the conservation as well degradation of supporting materials. In addition we focused our characterization on different techniques and materials applied in previous restorations. Finally, we certified with modern techniques the presence of deliberate falsification processes of some specimens.