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Characterisation and evaluation of the environmental impact on historical parchments by differential scanning calorimetry

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Abstract

Our recent developments concerning the assessment of parchments deterioration using DSC are reported. Measurements performed on samples in excess water conditions, in static air and gas flow provided qualitative and quantitative information on parchment ageing and deterioration at microscopic and mesoscopic level, when assembly of fibres/fibrils is weakened, partially and eventually completely lost, and at molecular level, when triple helix uncoiling occurs. A damage ranking scale based on a large collection of DSC parameters obtained by investigating artificially aged samples was set up. Deconvolution of the DSC thermal denaturation peaks in excess water enabled evaluating and discriminating stability of parchments with similar damage levels. Further experimental evidences such as softening of the crystalline fraction of collagen, thermal-oxidation and collagen gelatinisation were detected by DSC measurements in gas flow and static air, and related to specific deterioration patterns. DSC measurement of wet samples provided an objective and reliable method for evaluating parchment shrinkage temperature overcoming the limitations of conventional methods.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the European Union Fifth Framework project EVK4-2001-00067: Improved Damage Assessment of Parchment (IDAP), Italian project CIPE 04 D39: Old Parchment: Evaluating Restoration and Analysis (OPERA) and Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research project CEEX 165: Multidisciplinary research for establishing the deterioration mechanisms of historical and cultural parchment documents (PERGAMO). The enthusiastic collaboration of Cecilia Laurora, Rosetta Granziero, Marzia Rizzo and Battista Pittari (State Archives of Turin), Anna Braghieri and Stefano Benedetto (Historical Archives of the City of Turin), Silvia Perona and Paola Novaria (Historical Archives of the University of Turin) is warmly acknowledged. Authors are grateful to Dr. Lucretia Miu (INCDTP-ICPI, Bucharest) for the measurement of shrinkage temperatures by MHT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry IFM, University of Turin, via Pietro Giuria 9, 10125, Turin, Italy

    Elena Badea & Giuseppe Della Gatta

  2. National R&D Institute for Electrical Engineering, INCDIE ICPE-CA, Splaiul Unirii 313, 030138, Bucharest, Romania

    Petru Budrugeac

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  1. Elena Badea
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  2. Giuseppe Della Gatta
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  3. Petru Budrugeac
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Della Gatta.

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Elena Badea—On leave from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Craiova, Calea Bucuresti 165, Craiova, 200585, Romania.

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Badea, E., Della Gatta, G. & Budrugeac, P. Characterisation and evaluation of the environmental impact on historical parchments by differential scanning calorimetry. J Therm Anal Calorim 104, 495–506 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-011-1495-8

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