Improved Damage Assessment of Parchment (IDAP)

The objectives of the project are to improve the damage assessment of parchment by the correlation between the observed state of preservation and the measured condition, using complementary non-destructive and micro-analytical assessment. The improved damage assessment will be the basis for improved conservation planning and conservation and restoration of parchment. The objectives will be achieved by establishing and making available for the end-users in conservation and restoration of parchment on the Internet:

1) A Parchment Damage Assessment Programme (PDAP)

2) An Early Warning System (EWS)

3) A Digitalised User-friendly Parchment Damage Atlas (DUPDA)



The overall methodology and strategy to achieve the objectives are the use of simple and advanced complimentary assessment methods in continuous comparative and complementary techniques, advanced as well as simple, applied to a large amount of samples in different states of deterioration. Extensive cooperation between both the end-users and scientists guarantees successful outcome of the work. In addition, the number of historical parchment objects from the collections of the involved end-user organisations ensures a significant amount of data and observations for the correlation analysis. These parchments represent great complementarities and variations with respect to origin, object type, storage conditions, treatment conditions and geographical distribution (Central, Northern and Southern Europe). The tasks to be executed are distributed in the following 6 work packages:



WP1: Establishment of the damage assessment system (1. Visual damage assessment (macro and micro and end-users system) 2. Assessment of hydrothermal, thermochemical and thermophysical properties. 3. Assessement of the chemical compositional and structural damage.) All methods in systems 1, 2 and 3 are complementary and ensure comparative information on the micro- as well as the macro-structural level.



WP2: Establishment of a central data base (data collection and circulation, statistics, basis for design of PDAP, EWS and DUPDA).



WP3: Artificial ageing experiments (ageing experiments on new parchments to supplement damage studies on historical materials).



WP4: Assessment campaign 1 (using the three assessment systems in WP1)



WP5: Assessment campaign 2 (using the three assessment systems eventually modified on basis of comparative and correlation analysis). The information, data, detailed description of methods etc. leads to the final goals in WP6.



WP6: Establishment of PDAP, EWS and DUPDA.