Restoration parchment

Paper conservation, as known today, is new to Spain. Until a few years ago, custodians of the nations records on paper and parchment could only despair at the deterioration taking place. The restorers—craftsmen, in reality—scarcely were trained to tackle the broad problem. The pleas and warnings of those who wanted something done went unheeded. Here and there individual authorities sought professional help from abroad, but results proved minimal. In 1969, a dramatic change took place. Conservation was raised from the empirical to the scientific level. The breakthrough a law that provided for a centralized agency to restore the nations archival and library materials, determine the causes of deterioration, and train personnel to carry out these tasks. 

The techniques used by the Central Library were relatively sophisticated for the time local librarians were given short indoctrination courses in those techniques and learned how to make simple repairs on books. However, in the majority of Spain s libraries, bookbinders, if they were available, doubled as restorers in archives, people did paste-and-paper repairs in addition to regular duties. No one, not even at the Central Library, was available to confront the broader problems of deterioration facing the custodians of the nation s records on paper and parchment. 

The Centers central organization in Madrid is composed of the following Director, Chief of the Technical Department in the latter are the Control Room, the Chemistry, Physics, and Biology Laboratories, and seven workshops Book Restoration, Prints and Drawings, Manuscripts, Lamination, Leafcasting, Parchment, and Seals. The training mission is the direct responsibility of the Director. 

Parchment Shop. There are five restorers in this shop. Parchment documents and book covers to be restored get a mechanical surface cleaning with soft erasers then harder ones, if required, to remove dirt and grime. Hard, embrittled, and dry artifacts have their inks and pigments fixed with an acrylic resin spray or with a fine brush dipped in paraloid before immersion in a bath of ethanol and water (70% and 30%, respectively). 

As a paradigm for the evolving sophistication of laser ablation, the laser eraser described by Schawlow 30 years ago has now become a tool for graffiti removal, and more delicately for art restoration, e.g., paintings [32] and parchments [33]. 

Belaya, 1. K. (1970). Selecting and testing adhesives for the restoration of skin bindings and parchments. Restaurator, 1,221-231. 

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