Handmade paper

Ingredients

cellulose

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Sample C2A (Della natura delle cose, 1768) and C2B (1845) were analyzed for localized degradation. Paper darkening and foxing are associated with localized breaking of the glucose chain units (p. 1803). The ratio I1,100/I1,376 decreases with increasing degrees of darkening (p. 1808).

Evidence

"Figures 5 and 6 report the spectra recorded at two different points of a selected page of C2A and C2B samples... showing different degrees of paper darkening... suggesting a faster ageing of the darkest region of the texts with respect to the whitest one."

Remarks

Analysis of C2A (Della natura delle cose) showed that darker points on the same page have a lower intensity of the glycosidic bond band (1,100 cm−1) compared to the CH vibration band (1,376 cm−1), indicating a 'left shift' on the ageing plot (p. 1808). This reveals that wear from handling and environmental exposure can cause 100–150 years of 'effective' age difference between white and foxed areas on a single document (p. 1809).