The Museum of the Central Institute for the Restoration and Conservation of Archival and Library Heritage in Rome was established in 1938 within the Royal Institute of Book Pathology, with the aim of representing the wide range of damages to library heritage. Over the decades, the Museum has continuously enriched itself with artifacts illustrating the book manufacturing process and its deterioration, forming a collection of objects unique in its kind.
Since 2001, it has had a new layout designed to meet educational and informational needs for all age groups. The museum path is divided into three sections dedicated respectively to:
- the materials and manufacturing techniques of ancient and modern documents;
- the damages and the multiple factors that cause them;
- prevention and restoration.
In a room set up as a laboratory, it is possible to get hands-on experience with the materials used for restoration and to learn – through vintage documentaries and more recent films – about the evolving institutional history and the most challenging interventions involving the laboratories.
William Morris, a great architectural scholar of the last century, noted that it is possible to compare books with medieval buildings. Papyrus, paper, parchment, wood, leather, and metals are some of the materials constituting the oldest documents and their bindings; observing them reveals the technological level and solid skills that allowed the production of objects as functional as they are refined and precious.
Books and documents, like all structures made from organic materials, deteriorate over time. Natural aging, spontaneous and irreversible, is accelerated by various damaging factors such as: storage in unsuitable places, exceptional events (wars, floods, fires…), improper use, and improper or unnecessary restorations.
