Students from CICS working with the collection of the Library of the Palace in Mafra, Portugal

Students from the 2nd and 4th semesters of the CICS bachelor programme in book and paper conservation , working in the historic library in Mafra. Students carried out measurement of light, climate and microbiological activity in the collection. For a number of volumes a leather dressing was applied and leather samples were taken to investigate the degradation condition of the leather bindings.

A workshop on the topic of conservation of leather bindings was co-organized by the National Palace of Mafra (PNM) and CICS at the invitation of the palace director Dr. Mário Pereira. The PNM is an important Portuguese national monument current under evaluation as UNESCO world heritage. Between June 4th and 6th, eleven students from the bachelor programme in book and paper conservation travelled to Mafra to work on the collection of the 18th century library founded by King Joao V which includes more than 30.000 leather bound volumes dating from the 15th to the 19th century. The workshop carried out by Prof. Dr. Andrea Pataki-Hundt, Prof. Dr. Robert Fuchs and Prof. Dr. Ester Ferreira was open to a number of external students and topics such as climate monitoring, collection condition survey, leather ageing and leather treatment were addressed.

Bildergalerie

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The beautiful space of the library where the vast majority of the 30.000 volumes are displayed (Bild: TH Koeln-CICS Ferreira)

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In a seminar given by Prof. Dr. Ester Ferreira, volumes were selected for survey of the microbiological activity levels with ATP/AMP lumitester. (Bild: )

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A selection of volumes were surveyed following CICS condition report protocol in a seminar lead by Prof. Dr. Andrea Pataki Hundt (Bild: TH Koeln - CICS Ferreira)