The Investigation of a 17th Century Parchment Document

This study presents the investigation of a chrisov written on parchment, issued by Ștefan Lupu, the prince (voivode) of Moldavia (1659-1661), in 1660, from the collection of the National Museum of History of Romania (MNIR), in Bucharest. By using an analytical protocol based on corroboration of macroscopic and microscopic observations with the attenuated total reflection infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), information concerning parchment, inks and pigments were obtained. The Ștefan Lupu' chrisov is written on high quality goat parchment, matte, smooth, velvety, and it presents only a few manufacturing defects. ATR-FTIR analysis revealed a well-preserved structure of the collagen molecules, with a low level of hydrolytic decay. According to the XRF results, ferogallic and golden inks were used to write the Chrisov text whereas the ornaments were painted with vermilion pigment (for red color), verdigris pigment (for green color), Co-based pigment (for blue color) and fine gold powder. Both inks and pigments show a very good state of conservation.