Il 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 intent to represent the wide range of damages to the book heritage. Over the decades, the Museum has continuously enriched itself with artifacts illustrating the manufacturing of books and their deterioration, forming a unique collection of objects.
Since 2001, it has a new layout capable of meeting the needs of education and information 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 various factors that cause them;
- prevention and restoration.
In a room used as a laboratory, it is possible to get hands-on experience with the materials used for restoration and learn – through period documentaries and more recent films – the evolution of the institutional history and the most challenging interventions involving the laboratories.
William Morris, a great scholar of architecture, stated in the last century that it is possible to compare books with medieval buildings. Papyrus, paper, parchment, wood, leather, and metals are some of the materials composing the oldest documents and their bindings; by observing them it is possible to discover 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 of 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, improper or unnecessary restorations.
