On the use of hand-held X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy coupled to Monte Carlo simulations for the depth assessment of painted objects: The case study of a sixteenth-century illuminated printed book

• Autor(a) principal: Bottura-Scardina, Silvia
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Brunetti, Antonio, Bottaini, Carlo, Miguel, Catarina
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/30419; https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01326-x

This paper presents the application of an established XRF-MC (X-ray fluorescence-Monte Carlo) protocol to evaluate for the first time the thickness of pictorial layers in illuminated manuscripts. A previously investigated, sixteenth-century book printed in Paris (BPE, Inc. 438) was chosen as the case study: multiple analysis spots were scanned in selected areas (painted and unpainted) with p-XRF (hand-held XRF); later, the obtained spectra were compared against Monte Carlo simulations. Two pathways of MC simulations emerged: a three-layer model for the painted areas (stratigraphic sequence, from outer to inner: pictorial layer-underdrawing-parchment) and a two-layer model for the unpainted areas (underdrawing-parchment). Also, the calculated thickness of each simulated layer was compared against the thickness of micro-samples from Inc. 438. The results proved the protocol to provide quantitative compositional and stratigraphic data, yet with limitations. Results encourage the future research to elaborate a protocol.