Aug 22 2006
A team of scientists of the University of Granada has developed a new analysis technique that will guarantee the restoration and preservation of the oldest manuscripts of the city, relegated up to now to the lowest position. The method, developed by researchers of the Departments of Painting and Analytical Chemistry in collaboration with the Institute of Materials Sciences of Seville, and the archives of the Royal Chancellery of Granada, Provincial Historic Museum of Granada and the County Council of Granada, allows to study and identify the organic compounds of these documents from the extraction of a minimum sample which does not damage the heritage and allows to establish better guidelines to preserve them.
The research project, supervised by the director of the Department of Painting of the UGR [http://www.ugr.es], professor Teresa Espejo Arias, leaves the way open to a less invasive new field of work in the world of manuscripts preservation. To date, they had used the same analysis techniques that in other artistic works such as sculptures, murals or easel paintings, with the respective damage and loss of the historical material. "This kind of techniques require the extraction of an excessive amount of material, considering the type of work, which can provoke an irreparable damage, making part of the information of the manuscript disappear”, says Espejo.
In this sense, professor of the Department of Analytical Chemistry and member of this project, doctor José Luis Vílchez, explains that, to avoid these situations, they have designed a vanguard analytical method based on two techniques: High-resolution liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, and he adds that they have replaced “the sample taking system based on the scalpel by another which does not damage the preservation of the document and consist of using microbrushes with the appropriate solvents ”.
Arab maps and manuscripts
The validation of this vanguard method has been carried out with real samples from the collection of maps of the Royal Chancellery of Granada and the collection of Arab manuscripts of the Sacromonte Abbey. The plans and drawings of the Chancellery date from the 16th to the 19th centuries and have been part of witness evidence, whereas the 22 Arab manuscripts, some of them dating from the 11th century, have been useful to create the first colour models and develop the first studies on materials identification. “This first phase has been complemented with the study by the documentary and codicological study of the documents, and with the analysis of its inorganic elements, carried out by the Institute of Materials Sciences of the CSIC of Seville”, says the researcher.
Validation on different documents
The choice of these two documentary series responds to the fact that, although each one is framed in a similar chronological framework similar in the history of Granada, they are absolutely different, which allows, besides the validation of the technique, to determine similarities and differences in the material composition of the documents.
But this new method will not only be used in written documents. The aim of this research team is to extend it to other artistic works like photographs and paintings to guarantee their conservation without causing any damage in the artistic heritage. According to professor Espejo, it is very important in a moment in which “the preservation of the historic material is more important than its total restoration”.
On the other hand, the supervisor of the project also mentioned that they had managed that an interdisciplinary team worked on the preservation of the documentary heritage and thanked the archives of the city for their “sensitiveness” and the initiative of setting in motion a research work of such characteristics.