Spectroscopic characterization of historical building materials: The case study of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Venice, Italy)

• Published in: Journal of Raman spectroscopy 2018-02, Vol.49 (2), p.351-361
• Main Authors: Lodi, Giulia Carolina, De Ferri, Lavinia, Pojana, Giulio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: alteration products; Blackening; Building materials; Case studies; Construction materials; Fourier transforms; Historic buildings & sites; historical building; Historical buildings; limestone; mortars; Mortars (material); Nitrates; Powdering; Reflectance; Substrates
• ISSN: 0377-0486; 1097-4555
• DOI: 10.1002/jrs.5290

The building designed by Sansovino in 1532 as the new Mint of Venice underwent a change in its intended use, becoming in 1900 the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. A spectroscopic study concerning the surface stone materials of the current reading room (previously a courtyard) was attempted since the transformation lead to heavy micro‐ and macroclimatic variations. Many alterations were observed, such as blackening, cracking, incrustations, and mortars powdering. The employed techniques, such as Raman and Fourier Transform InfraRed‐Attenuated Total Reflectance spectroscopy, allowed identifying the substrate main components and their alteration phases, mainly sulfates and nitrates. These data represent important information when approaching such a famous building because every further intervention must be based on accurate scientific results. We report a Raman study of building materials sampled by the reading room of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana of Venice, originally realized as the Mint of Venice by J. Sansovino. Depending on the life phases of the site, a courtyard successively transformed into a reading room, different alteration processes occurred over time and Raman results, also supported by Fourier transform infrared spectra, allowed characterizing the sampled materials and identifying the alteration products.