Microclimate for Cultural Heritage

Dario Camuffo

apr, 1998 · Elsevier

Bu e-kitob haqida

This is a useful microphysics handbook for conservators and specialists in physics, chemistry, architecture, engineering, geology and biology dealing with the environment and works of art. A rigourous treatment and a background familiarity with the underlying physics behind mathematics are covered, giving a detailed description and interpretation of the main microphysical phenomena, removing unsound popular beliefs. The basis are given for non-destructive diagnostics to evaluate causes of damage determined by atmoshpheric factors, as well as negative consequences of the unsound use of technology and mass tourism. To this aim, suggestions are given on the fundamental principles in designing heating, air conditioning, lighting and in reducing the deposition of pollutants on works of art. Theory and experience are coupled to describe the complex condensation mechanisms and the fundamental role played by water in the stone deterioration and the formation of crusts on monuments. Urban meteorology, air-surface interactions, atmospheric stability, dispersion and deposition of airborne pollutants are also key topics of this book, for which the main aim has been to make comprehensible to a wider audience a matter that is only familiar to a few specialists.

This book combines a theoretical background with many years of accurate laboratory research, field surveys and practice. The first part, devoted to applied theory, is a concise treatise on microphysics, which includes a survey on the basic ideas which are necessary for environmental diagnostic and conservation. The second part of the book focuses on the practical utilisation and shows in detail how field surveys should be performed, with many suggestions and examples and the indication of some common errors that should be avoided.

Muallif haqida

Physicist. From 1969 at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, where his last position was Research Director. He retired in 2008, he now continues research and teaching as emeritus Associate. Since 1979, he has been lecturer of Environmental Physics and Physics for Conservation at the University of Padua, the Cignaroli Academy of Fine Arts, Verona, the Polytechnic of Milan. For ten years, he was the Co- Director of the European Doctoral Course “Sciences and Materials of the Cultural Heritage , of the European University Centre for Cultural Heritage, Ravello. His activities are mainly devoted to atmospheric physics applied to the conservation of the cultural heritage and to climate change. He has recovered and studied the earliest regular observations of the Medici Network (1654-1670) and a number of long-term instrumental series starting from the early 17th century. Similarly with written documentary proxies (e.g. chronicles, annals) over the last millennium: he reads fluent Latin, the official language of the Middle Ages and the language of scientific literature up to the French Revolution, Italian, French, English, Spanish, and ancient Greek. The possibility of reading original documents and books is very helpful in recovering data, but also in the interpretation of old recipes or scientific writings. He analyzed the sea level rise in Venice, over the last 500 years after the algae belt marked on the paintings by Canaletto, Bellotto and Veronese, who reproduced precise details with the help of a camera obscura. He was requested by the Holy Father John Paul II to improve the microclimate of Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, and appointed by UNESCO for the Great Sphinx and Pyramid Plateau, Egypt, Thracian Tombs, the city of Nassebur and the Madara Rider, Bulgaria, all included in the World List of Cultural Heritage (WLCH). He also studied the Leonardo's Last Supper, Milan; the Uffizi Gallery, Florence; the Louvre and the Orangerie Museum, Paris; the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; the Orvieto Cathedral, and many other monuments. Active in standardization for cultural heritage, convenor of two working teams of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Technical Committee for Cultural Heritage, and vice-president of UNI-Normal (Italian Standardization Body). Member of various international scientific committees (e.g. European Commission, UNESCO, U.S. NAPAP) on the conservation of works of art, environment and climate. He wrote over 300 scientific papers and some books. He leaded many research projects, some fifteen of them funded by the European Commission Directorate General Research and Innovation, and the European Science Foundation (COST).