Thermographic study of the illuminations of a 15th century antiphonary

In this paper, we present an application of the infrared thermography to the study of illuminations. In particular, we analyze a 15th century antiphonary from the Biblioteca Angelica of Rome to characterize the conservation state and the structure of the illuminations on the occasion of its planned restoration. We show the results achieved from the stratigraphic investigation of the gilded surface, the parchment substrate and the underdrawing. The obtained information have been, then, used to direct the necessary restoration steps and also to assess the effectiveness of the treatments by a comparative analysis of the thermograms recorded before and after the restoration.