Characterization of New and Artificially Aged Parchments

This study aims to characterize new and artificially aged parchments. Parchment samples of calf, sheep, goat and pig were exposed to artificial ageing at 70°C in 3 cycles: first cycle for 7 days, second cycle for 14 days and 21 days for the 3rd cycle. Thus, a treatment temperature of 70°C was selected to avoid sudden structural changes and rapid collagen denaturation. To evaluate the deterioration degree of parchments, the samples exposed to the first cycle were subjected to physical-mechanical, chemical tests and shrinkage temperature while the samples exposed to the second and 3rd cycle to physical-mechanical test. Depending on the ageing cycles significant changes were reported. The accelerated ageing of parchments degraded the physical-mechanical properties and lowered the shrinkage temperature. The behavior of sheep and goat parchment samples to accelerated ageing suggests a rather high deterioration in the hydrothermal stability.