The conservation of the printed globes of V. Coronelli between knowledge and restoration

Abstract

For the conservation and the possible restoration of an ancient artefact it is always necessary a deep knowledge of the materials with which it was realised and of the ways that the author of the work of art has used them. Three cases are presented here, regarding the globes of Coronelli, showing the utility of this type of study. In the globes, preserved at the Classense Library, the scientific investigations permitted to verify the real correspondence between the work of art and the description of Coronelli for their construction, and to evaluate the conservation conditions. In the globe Enriques, an accurate investigation has led to the discovery that this artefact represents one of the tests, if not the first one, made by the author. In another case, the globe of Faenza, at present under analysis and restoration, a series of tests is proposed for the choice of the more appropriate intervention to be realised in the future.