Museo dell'Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario

The Museum of the Central Institute for the restoration and preservation of archival and library was established in 1938 as part of the Royal Institute of Pathology of the Book, with the intent to represent the wide casuistry of damage to library collections. Over the decades, the Museum has continuously enriched with exhibits illustrating the manufacture of the book and its degradation, forming a collection of unique objects.

Since 2001 he has a new layout capable of fulfilling the needs of education and information for all ages. The museum is divided into three sections, respectively:

 

    materials and manufacturing techniques of the ancient and modern documents;

    the damage and the multiple factors that cause them;

    prevention and restoration.

 

In a room used as a workshop, you can reach out and touch the materials used for the restoration and know - through documentaries and movies more recent vintage - the evolution of the institutional history and the more difficult jobs involving laboratories.

William Morris, a great scholar of architecture in the last century said that it is possible to compare the books with medieval buildings. Papyrus, paper, parchment, wood, leather and metals are some of the materials they are made of the most ancient documents and their bindings, watching them you can find out the level of technology and solid skills that have enabled the production of objects as functional, as refined and precious.

Books and documents, like all structures made of organic materials, with the passage of time will deteriorate. The natural aging, spontaneous and irreversible, is accelerated by several factors such as damage: storage in unsuitable places, exceptional events (wars, floods, fires ...), misuse, improper or unnecessary restorations.