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Sophie Rabitsch, Christa Hofmann, Junko Sonderegger 275
ther cracks and losses in the inked areas were secured. As the interventions should be kept
at a minimum, only areas with edges appearing very fragile were mended (Fig 30). Areas
with larger losses in the miniatures like on folios 12, 13 and 14 were stabilised with bridges
of remoistenable tissue. Considering the minimal handling that the manuscript would
receive after treatment, the bridges offered sufficient security. The procedure was the same
as described above. The mending measures were carefully mapped. The tissue bridges were
applied on the rougher hair side of the folios, except on folio 1, where the flesh side was
rougher than the hair side.
In some areas, the paint layer was detaching from the parchment substrate, which resulted
in flaking and the loss of paint. In order to locate these areas, the paint layer of each mini-
ature painting was examined carefully under magnification54 using a fine brush. First tests for
consolidation were made with gelatine Restoration Type 1, 2 %, which was considered too
weak for this purpose. Isinglass 1.5–2 % was chosen instead, which was kept warm in a bot-
tle warmer. Before applying the adhesive, the paint layer was pre-wetted with ethanol. Thin
brushes were used (00, Winsor & Newton, Series 7). If necessary, the lifting paint layer was
put down with a fine colour shaper (0, flat chisel, Royal Sovereign Ltd UK, with polyester
web placed in between) (Fig. 31). The areas where consolidation was necessary were carefully
54 Wild M 400, 6.3x–32x. Fig. 31: a) Consolidation of the
paint layer under the
microscope, b) before
and c) after treatment,
folio 18, page 35, 10x
magnification (scale
bar 1 mm).
Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0
The Vienna Genesis
Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment
- Title
- The Vienna Genesis
- Subtitle
- Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment
- Editor
- Christa Hofmann
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-21058-0
- Size
- 17.3 x 24.5 cm
- Pages
- 348