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Open AccessArticle
Thermal Reading of Texts Buried in Historical Bookbindings
by
Stefano Paoloni
Stefano Paoloni 1
,
Giovanni Caruso
Giovanni Caruso 2,
Noemi Orazi
Noemi Orazi 1,*
,
Ugo Zammit
Ugo Zammit 1 and
Fulvio Mercuri
Fulvio Mercuri 1
1
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
2
Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy (ISPC-CNR), Montelibretti, 00010 Rome, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2024, 24(17), 5493; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24175493 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 16 July 2024
/
Revised: 21 August 2024
/
Accepted: 22 August 2024
/
Published: 24 August 2024
Abstract
In the manufacture of ancient books, it was quite common to insert written scraps belonging to earlier library material into bookbindings. For scholars like codicologists and paleographers, it is extremely important to have the possibility of reading the text lying on such scraps without dismantling the book. In this regard, in this paper, we report on the detection of these texts by means of infrared (IR) pulsed thermography (PT), which, in recent years, has been specifically proven to be an effective tool for the investigation of Cultural Heritage. In particular, we present a quantitative analysis based, for the first time, on PT images obtained from books of historical relevance preserved at the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. The analysis has been carried out by means of a theoretical model for the PT signal, which makes use of two image parameters, namely, the distortion and the contrast, related to the IR readability of buried texts. As shown in this paper, the good agreement between the experimental data obtained with historical books and the theoretical analysis proved the capability of the adopted PT method to be fruitfully applied, in a real case study, to the detection of buried texts and to the quantitative characterization of the parameters affecting their thermal readability.
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Paoloni, S.; Caruso, G.; Orazi, N.; Zammit, U.; Mercuri, F.
Thermal Reading of Texts Buried in Historical Bookbindings. Sensors 2024, 24, 5493.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s24175493
AMA Style
Paoloni S, Caruso G, Orazi N, Zammit U, Mercuri F.
Thermal Reading of Texts Buried in Historical Bookbindings. Sensors. 2024; 24(17):5493.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s24175493
Chicago/Turabian Style
Paoloni, Stefano, Giovanni Caruso, Noemi Orazi, Ugo Zammit, and Fulvio Mercuri.
2024. "Thermal Reading of Texts Buried in Historical Bookbindings" Sensors 24, no. 17: 5493.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s24175493
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