MICHELA PERINO

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXIV


advisor: Anna Candida Felici

Thesis title: Archaeometry of the book: revealing hidden texts and painting materials in historical manuscripts

The book manuscript is an artefact made by humans for collecting words, ideas, notions, and thoughts, expressed through the written or drawing language. It is also a material object resulting from craft practices and interactions with socio-cultural environments. When considered from an archaeological perspective, the materials of the manuscript (such as writing supports, inks, and pigments) are a source of unpublished historical knowledge. The need of in-depth characterisation of materials can be satisfied by modern archaeometry, i.e., the application of “hard” sciences (e.g., physics, mathematics, chemistry, engineering) to archaeology. The first part of the thesis concerns the analysis of materials in order to "restore" texts unreadable with naked eyes. In Chapter I the history of chemical procedures to the advent of modern non-invasive imaging technologies is reviewed. Chapters II and III contain two research based on the use of imaging technologies to unveil hidden texts in severely damaged ancient papyri. The second part of the thesis concerns the analyses of pigments in illuminated manuscripts. In Chapter IV a brief introduction to the topic is outlined. Chapter V reports the application of spectroscopic techniques as a tool to differentiate the pictorial methods of the artists in a fourteenth-century manuscript. Chapter VI contains an ongoing research collaboration between the Departments of Sapienza University of Rome and INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics), which aims at building a framework for infrared multispectral imaging of illuminated manuscripts.

Research products

  • 11573/1176191 - 2018 - Characterization and digital restauration of XIV-XV centuries written parchments by means of non-destructive techniques. Three case studies (01a Articolo in rivista)
    PRONTI, LUCILLA; PERINO, MICHELA; SANTARELLI, MARIA LAURA; FELICI, ANNA CANDIDA; BRACCIALE, MARIA PAOLA
  • 11573/1283495 - 2019 - Sano di Pietro and his workshop: the materials and techniques of manuscript illumination (04f Poster)
    PERINO, MICHELA; PRONTI, LUCILLA; FELICI, ANNA CANDIDA; MANZARI, FRANCESCA
  • 11573/1283626 - 2017 - Multispectral imaging as digital restoration tool for faded inks on manuscripts. Three cases of study of degraded written parchments by means of non-destructive techniques (04f Poster)
    PRONTI, LUCILLA; PERINO, MICHELA; BRACCIALE, MARIA PAOLA; FELICI, ANNA CANDIDA; CURSI, MARCO; SANTARELLI, MARIA LAURA
  • 11573/1283462 - 2019 - Terahertz imaging and spectroscopy of papyrus phantoms (04f Poster)
    PERINO, MICHELA; TANGA, ALFONSO ALESSANDRO; ORTOLANI, MICHELE
  • 11573/1318671 - 2019 - Ancient Greek text concealed on the back of unrolled papyrus revealed through shortwave-infrared hyperspectral imaging (01a Articolo in rivista)
    PERINO, MICHELA
  • 11573/1344338 - 2019 - Assembling a setup for infrared multispectral imaging of medieval codices (04f Poster)
    NUCARA, ALESSANDRO; TANGA, ALFONSO ALESSANDRO; ORTOLANI, MICHELE; MANZARI, FRANCESCA; FELICI, ANNA CANDIDA; PERINO, MICHELA
  • 11573/1415300 - 2020 - Caratterizzazione dei materiali impiegati nella miniatura dello Speculum corsiniano mediante analisi non invasive (02a Capitolo o Articolo)
    PERINO, MICHELA; FELICI, ANNA CANDIDA
  • 11573/1415312 - 2020 - Scheda codicologica (02a Capitolo o Articolo)
    PERINO, MICHELA
  • 11573/1569177 - 2021 - Revealing artists’ collaboration in a 14th century manuscript by non-invasive analyses (01a Articolo in rivista)
    PERINO, MICHELA; MANZARI, FRANCESCA; NUCARA, ALESSANDRO; FELICI, ANNA CANDIDA

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