Historical Perspectives in the Conservation of Works of Art on Paper

Edited by Margaret Holben Ellis; 2015

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The volume provides a selection of more than ninety-five texts tracing the development of the conservation of works of art on paper.

Comprehensive and thorough, the book relates how paper conservation has responded to the changing place of prints and drawings in society. The readings include a remarkable range of historical selections from texts such as Renaissance printmaker Ugo da Carpi's sixteenth-century petition to the Venetian senate on his invention of chiaroscuro, Thomas Churchyard's 1588 essay in verse "A Sparke of Frendship and Warme Goodwill," and Robert Bell's 1773 piece "Observations Relative to the Manufacture of Paper and Printed Books in the Province of Pennsylvania." These are complemented by influential writings by such figures as A. H. Munsell, Walter Benjamin, and Jacques Derrida, along with a generous representation of recent scholarship.

Each reading is introduced by short remarks explaining the rationale for its selection and the principal matters covered, and the book is supplemented with a helpful bibliography.