Conservation Report - Consolato di Mare

Conservation Report Consolato di Mare, Manifesti, Bundle 1 (1697 - 1712) NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF MALTA

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Conservation Report Consolato di Mare, Manifesti, Bundle 1 (1697 - 1712)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF MALTA CONSERVATION LABORATORY 2015

Archival Description Fond: Consolato del Mare Series: Manifesti Item: Bundle 1 (1697 – 1712) Medium: manuscript – iron gall ink Dimensions: 310 x 225 mm Title: Jesus Maria Joseph ... Registro del Manifesto De Navi, e loro ordegni & armi degli anni – 1699, 1700 & 1701... existente Cancilliere dell’Officio del Consolato di Mare Il Notaro Pietro Fiore ... Melivetano.

The bundle consists of a bound volume made up of six gatherings (16991701) which are bound on three leather thongs (286 folios, unpaginated); and another five loose gatherings dated (28) March 1708 – 20 June 1712 (194 folios)

Contents 1. Condition...................................................................................... 4 2. Proposal for Conservation Treatment.............................................. 5 3. The Conservation Report................................................................ 7 4. Photographic Documentation...................................................... 10 Appendices..................................................................................... 26

1. Condition The Volume is in a stable condition (image 1). Some surface dirt is present especially around the fore edges which also show signs of wear and tear in the form of creases, folds and some minor splits. The lower edges are dog-eared (image 4). The front part has a rather large tide line stain (image 5), most probably brought on by contact with water.

This diminishes at the second gathering and reappears at the lower end of the last two gatherings. All the original sewing is intact, except for the lower leather thong which is split at the front fold (image 6). The cover is made up of a heavy greyish board. Ink corrosion is present on a label attached to the inside front cover (image 13).

The Bundle (image 2) of five gatherings has severe damage at the top part due to a tide line stain (image 5) brought on by high humidity or contact with some form of liquid, possibly water. The area affected with this stain is very fragile and in some parts disintegrated due to felting (the paper is frayed and very soft with a tendency to break) (image 8). This same damage also occurs to a lesser extent on the middle lower part. No form of binding is present and all folios are folded loosely in their respective gathering.

There are a few areas which show some presence of dark pigmented spots on the surface due to dry mould were the tide line stain is present.

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2. Proposal for Conservation Treatment The bundle consisting of five gatherings will be enumerated using pencil. Then they will be dry cleaned using soft archival erasers, brushes. During this operation all the folios will be separated.

Filling in of the missing areas will be done by using the leaf casting machine. This decision was taken after consultation with various Heads of Conservation within major European Conservation Institutions. (Appendix 1) The leaf casting process entails immersing each separate folio supported on silk screen in a water bath, adding paper fibre to the water and with the help of a vacuum the water is sucked out of the container thus leaving the paper fibres entrapped and filling in the missing areas of the document. During this operation the folios will also be automatically cleaned.

The top part of the folios that is damaged by the tide line and felted is very weak. When the folio is leafcasted a weak point will be created between the fragile part and the newly filled in area; so to counteract this is a lining of very fine Japanese tissue will be applied before the folio is leafcasted.

The repaired sheets will be air dried on blotting paper. The dried folios will be deacidified with a solution of Calcium Hyrdoxide. The next step would be to size the folios. During this process a coating of diluted methyl cellulose paste is applied evenly on the sheet.

This is done so that the paper regains its strength after immersion in water. Once again the sheets are air dried and pressed between blotting paper under a nipping press for up to seventy two hours. When removed from under the press the folios will be checked for any minor repairs that will need to be redone and later all excess repair paper is trimmed off.

The next step after trimming is binding. The binding style chosen is Limp Binding. This type of binding does not incorporate any glue and is 100 %, reversible. This type of binding is also very flexible and so allows the manuscript to open easily. The folios will be set up in their original gatherings and sewn. The sewing will be done using unbleached cotton twine on binders tape. The cover will be made up of an archival quality board (300gsm) 5

The manuscript will be dry cleaned using soft archival erasers, brushes. Splits and tears will be repaired with Japanese tissue (5 gsm). The dog-eared edges will be flattened using a tacking iron and if necessary reinforced with Japanese tissue (5 gsm). A label attached to the inside front cover showing damage from ink corrosion will be reinforced with Japanese paper. The lower leather thong that is split will be re-attached by using very thin cotton thread. Parts of the cover that are missing, (the hole were the top thong is threaded through), will be filled in with thick repair paper.

The items will be stored in an Archival quality storage box (pH 7.55).

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3. The Conservation Report The bundle was enumerated in folios using a soft pencil (image 9). Mechanical cleaning was applied to both the bundle and the manuscript to remove any accumulation of surface dirt on the folios. A soft goat’s hair brush and wet/dry sponges were used in this process. It was noted that the manuscript had a residue of dark particles amongst the folios (images 10 & 11). These could probably be additives form the ink that flaked off.

At this stage the sheets forming the five gatherings of the bundle were separated from each other.

A very fine Japanese tissue with a weight of 5gsm was used to line and reinforce those parts of the folios that were showing severe signs of deterioration (image 14). This was done before the actual leafcasting so as to avoid splits from developing during the drying process of the repaired document.

Leafcasting was done to repair the folios that had missing areas (image 15). Two colour types of fibre were used according to the tinge of the paper; cream and a mixture of cream with a small percentage of grey. No ink migration was noted after leafcasting (image 16).

After leafcasting the documents were air dried on blotting paper stacked on a drying rack.

After drying which normally would have taken twenty four hours, the documents were checked for any infills that needed to be done which would not have been covered by the leafcasting process. Paper pulp was used to fill in these pinholes. Having done this the next step was de-acidification. This was done by spraying using an over saturated solution of Calcium Hydroxide in water. When dry the papers were sized (image 17) and again air dried on blotting paper (image 18). A diluted mixture of Methyl Cellulose was used for this purpose. Sizing is needed as it inhibits the absorption of liquid into the fibre and gives added strength to the paper.

Now any excess repairs were trimmed off and the folios were individually pressed between blotting paper under a nipping press for up to 72 hours. After pressing, the folios were folded into sections accordingly and readied for sewing in limp binding form. The gatherings were sewn onto three posts using cotton twine (image 19) and cased in to form a Limp Binding (image 20). The cover was made up of Archival quality light board of 300 7

gsm. The end papers used are European wove paper of 100 gsm with a pH value of 7.85 (image 25).

The manuscript did not need leafcasting and all repairs were carried out in situ without dismantling the binding. Japanese tissue (5gsm) was used to repair and reinforce the spine area of the folios at the beginning of the gatherings. All dog-eared edges were flattened using a heat set tacking iron and reinforced with Japanese fine tissue as necessary.

The label attached to the inside front cover was de-attached from the cover and washed.

Japanese paper (36 gsm) was used as backing to strengthen it. A hole were one of the thongs is threaded was filled in using parts of a sheet of paper pulp which was of the same equivalent gauge and colour. Frayed edges of the cover were coated with Japanese tissue (5gsm). pH testing was carried out on sporadic sheets before and after leafcasting. The readings were of pH 5.53 - 6.05 before and pH 7.04 – 7.50 after leafcasting . After deacidification this rose to pH 8.11 – 8.15 (images 23 – 25).

Testing was also carried out for the presence of Iron (II) ions in the paper both before and after leafcasting (image s 21 & 22). Testing was carried out on blank parts and areas with iron gall ink of the documents and was done both before and after leafcasting. The results were negative in all instances. (Appendix 2). Iron (II) ions can originate from the dissociation of water soluble ferrous compounds from the ink, as well as from the reduction of Iron (III) ions. The tests were carried out using the Bathophenanthroline Indicator test strips (Appendix 3).

Mario Gauci Simon Dimech

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Tests and Matierials Tests carried out (a) ink solubility in water (b) pH testing of folios before and after leafcasting. (c) Testing for Fe (II) ions present in the paper before and after leafcasting.

Materials used Methyl Cellulose paste Calcium Hydroxide Japanese tissue 5 gsm Japanese Paper 36 gsm European Wove Paper 100 gsm Paper pulp sheet Cotton twine Unbleached linen tape Archival quality light board 300 gsm

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4. Photographic Documentation

Image 1 - State of the bound manuscript before treatment

Image 2 - State of the Bundle of five gatherings before treatment 10

Image 3 – The manuscript before treatment

Image 4 – Dog – eared edges of the manuscript 11

Image 5 – Tide-Line stain on foredges of the manuscript

Image 6 – Broken cleather chord 12

Image 7 – State of the Bundles before conservation

Image 8 – Felting at the top edge of the documents 13

Image 9 – pagination

Image 10 – Dry cleaning using an Archival quality sponge 14

Image 11 – Dry cleaning using special Conservation brushes

Image 12 – Residue of dark particles in manuscript 15

Image 13 – Ink corrosion on label affixed to front cover

Image 14 – reinforcing with fine Japanese tissue weak areas 16

Image 15 – Leafcasting

Image 16 – The iron gall ink after leafcasting – showing no signs of haloing or ink migration 17

Image 17 – Sizing of the documents after leafcasting

Image 18 – Air drying of the documents after sizing 18

Image 19 – Sewing the gatherings together

Image 20 – Casing in of the sewn five gatherings 19

Images 21 and 22 – Testing for Iron (II) ions 20

Image 23 – pH testing before treatment, reading 5.53

Image 24 – pH testing after leafcasting, reading 7.34 21

Image 25 and 26 – pH testing after deacidification, reading 8.10 and below of endpapers (pH 7.85) 22

Image 26 and 27 – The state of the manuscript cover before and after conservation 23

Images 27 and 28 – The state of the five gatherings before and after conservation 24

Image 29 – The five gatherings after binding

Image 30 – The gatherings bound in Limp Binding style 25

Appendix 1 List of European Conservation Institiutions that apply leafcasting to repair documents with iron gall ink.

Holland – Department of Restoration & Conservation at the National Archives Holland - Hoogdien Papier in Delft.

Poland – Central Conservation Laboratory, Central Archives of Historical Records Spain – Conservation Department of the National Archives of Historical documents Latvia – Dept of Preventive Conservation, National Archives.

Slovenia – Archives of the Republic of Slovenia Finland – Collection Management Division, National Archives of Finland Germany – Regional Archives. (The Federal Archives do not use leafcasting as most of their documents are after 1850)

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Appendix 2 Test for presence of Iron (II) ions.

A small piece of moist test strip is put on the test area whilst slight pressure is applied; if the colour of the test strip turns magenta, this indicates the presence of FE II ions.

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Appendix 3 Bathophenanthroline indicator paper for iron(II) ions. Instituut Collectie, Netherlands

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