Ultimo aggiornamento 14 October 2025
The Restoration Laboratory carries out restoration, training, and research activities aimed at studying the evolution of techniques used in the production of archival and library materials, determining their state of conservation, and defining the appropriate methods and materials for intervention. It also works in collaboration with scientific laboratories to develop experimental solutions and procedures for intervention.
It collaborates with important national and international institutions to develop conservation materials and restoration interventions on works of historical/cultural importance and complex execution. It also trains specialized personnel at an international level.
It collaborates with the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica del Lazio as technical and scientific support for the control of executive projects.
Hanji paper validation project
Hertziana Library Project (PIC)
Artemidorus Project
Leonardo Project: experimentation and restoration of the Codex on Flight and 13 drawings
Major executive projects
Earthquake emergency
Some examples of restorations: the “Sacred Book of Qaraqosh” is a miniature liturgical manuscript, of Syro-Catholic provenance, named after the Iraqi city in which it was found. It is a volume datable between the 14th and 15th centuries consisting of 116 cards containing a text in Aramaic with Syriac characters in black and red and a binding with wood plates and leather covers. The volume was hidden by some priests in an understory of the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh to protect it from the arrival of ISIS terrorists, who occupied the city from July 2014 to November 2016.
During the occupation, the city of Qaraqosh was destroyed and its churches destroyed by the iconoclastic fury of the terrorists. With the military reconquest of the city, the manuscript, severely damaged, was given by the Archbishop of Mosul to the volunteers of the Federation of International Voluntary Organizations of Christian Inspiration (FOCSIV) and, thanks to the agreements with the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e per il Turismo, entrusted to the care of the restorers of the Istituto Centrale per la Patologia degli Archivi e del Libro. The volume has therefore been subjected to accurate diagnostic investigations and to a complex and meticulous restoration for which it has been approved by different professional consultants and contributions and that has also involved the use of innovative methodologies and materials. At the end of the restoration, which lasted about two years, the manuscript was handed over in March 2021 by Pope Francis, on the occasion of his visit to Iraq, to the Archbishop of Mosul.
This video was made by Mic: https://youtu.be/VuLpponu4O0
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed – Norsa Codex: the Norsa Codex is one of the miniature copies of the Hebrew translation of the Guide for the perplexed by the Jewish physician and philosopher Mosheh ben Maimon, known as Maimonides.
This is the most significant and celebrated work of medieval Jewish philosophy, originally composed in Arabic at the end of the 12th century and later translated into Hebrew. The Codex, produced in the Ashkenazi Jewish context, was created by Yahaqov ben Rabbi Shemuhel in 1349, during the Black Death and the resulting anti-Jewish persecutions. It was purchased in 1513 by Mosheh di Netan’el Norsa, a collector and member of the eminent Mantuan family to whom the volume belonged for over 500 years.
The manuscript is unique due to its full-page miniatures in perfect Gothic style, which introduce the work and fully illustrate its philosophical and theological content. Following its compulsory purchase by the Direzione generale Archivi del Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, the codex was brought to ICPAL for restoration. The Institute conducted comprehensive investigations of all its material components and implemented a unique restoration project that balanced both the historical and conservation needs of the volume.
Codex on Leonardo’s Flight: the codex’s name derives from the subject matter of the texts and drawings. The text appears to date back to 1505. The notebook contains several red chalk drawings created before the text, some of which are covered by the text, while others are left visible, with writing along the outline of the sketch. The Codex consists of 18 leaves; the cover, made of rag paste, features various notes on the front and back covers, such as pigment preparation instructions and a shopping list. The Codex’s complex history—including inheritance, theft, transfer, expropriation, and sale of individual folios—has allowed us to follow its evolution, albeit discontinuously, and to undertake the conservation project while fully respecting the historicization of all its material components.
The Artemidorus Papyrus: the history of this famous papyrus encompasses the controversy surrounding its authenticity. It was sold in 2004 by the Egyptian art dealer Serop Simonian, a gallery owner of Armenian origins who moved to Hamburg, to the Foundation for Art and Culture of the Compagnia San Paolo in Turin. It is not the Institute’s role to enter into the question of the artifact’s authenticity, but the entire scientific and conservation intervention certainly posed a challenge, both due to its complexity and its future valorization.
The restoration work performed on the Artemidorus Papyrus provided a unique opportunity to study the papyrus material, to compare it with conservation methods used in the past, and to enhance the value of this type of artifact.
When working on objects of such historical and material complexity, a multidisciplinary approach is essential to achieving the best results. The data provided by scientific investigations have allowed for in-depth investigation of the material, bringing new questions to light. Discussions with historians/papyrologists have provided a better understanding of the historical events surrounding the papyrus, as well as the identification of difficult-to-spot details. Meanwhile, discussions among restorers have allowed for the identification of the most suitable methodologies for this case study.
Pop-up volume ‘Astrologia’ by Ottavio Pisani: Atlantic-format volume, preserved at the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome, printed in Antwerp in 1613. This pop-up work features mobile devices useful for astrological and astronomical research. The copy being restored is one of two in Italy (the other, colored, is located in the library of the Galileo Galilei Museum in Florence) and represents a new area of interest for the Institute, which is tackling a volume of this nature for the first time. Working with volvellae and pointers, the Institute is working to find the most suitable system for restoring these delicate mobile devices. The restoration of this copy was included in the Pop-Up Conference organized by the Tancredi di Barolo Foundation in Turin for the end of February 2020, but was later postponed to a date to be determined due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Bad Arolsen Project – ITS (International Tracing Service): in October 2015, following contacts between ICPAL and ITS, an on-site visit was conducted at the German headquarters of the Nazi Archives in Bad Arolsen, marking the beginning of a collaborative project between the two institutions. On that occasion, folders and registers representative of the issues present in the German Archives were subjected to an initial analysis, allowing a small sample of documents to be selected for analysis at the Institute. The aim of the project was to examine the various material aspects of the selected documentation, which exemplifies that preserved in Bad Arolsen, to propose, if necessary, any conservation treatments different from those applied to the documents in Germany, to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the products and procedures used, and, finally, to undertake any necessary restorations as part of a work program entitled “A Restoration Project.”
The Bad Arolsen Archives preserve 30 million individual documents, including microfilms, films and approximately 2,800 personal items of the internees and represent the tangible memory of what happened in the concentration camps during the Nazi period.