Étude et traitement de deux cartes portulans

• Main Author: Nadège Duqueyroix
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association CeROArt 2013-05-01
• Series: CeROArt : Conservation, Exposition, Restauration d'Objets d'Art
• Subjects: portolan chart; Mediterranean; parchment; illumination; mounting; conservation
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/ceroart/3269

Two portolan charts dated from the 17th century, from the National Maritime Museum in Paris, were studied and conserved in the conservation department of the Institut National du Patrimoine (Inp). These navigation maps were originally part of an atlas attributed to cartographer François Ollive’s workshop in Marseille. Each map is painted on a whole piece of parchment and stuck onto cardboards. The different behavior of parchment and cardboard in humidity caused a lot of damages on the maps, such as an important concave distortion, tears and losses.The high hygroscopicity of parchment required specific conservation and mounting solutions in order to prevent these damages to occur. A mounting system using polyester hinges placed around the parchment was studied and used for these two charts.