Microclimate monitoring in the Museum of Colle del Duomo in Viterbo (Italy)

Abstract

In this paper the results of microclimate monitoring campaigns in the Museum of Colle del Duomo in Viterbo will be synthesised and discussed with reference to various exhibition rooms and artwork materials. Colle del Duomo is a museum of Sacred art in which different kinds of religious objects are exposed and stored, i.e. reliquary busts in wood, papier-mache and metals, sacred clothes, panel paintings, gypsum models, etc. This wide variety of materials makes particularly difficult to maintain environmental parameters, such as light, relative humidity and temperature, within the ranges of values recommended by the Italian and European standards for Museum conservation. However, the monitoring campaigns allowed to know the most critical situations and to intervene with solutions aimed at limiting or mitigating the effects of microclimate on the artefact materials. Three main rooms were monitored for one year: the Sacred Vestments room, the papier-mache reliquary room and room of Baroque wall paintings with the beautiful wooden choir in a closed area of the Cathedral, immediately adjacent to the Museum. The continuous monitoring was performed by means of portable data-loggers. Irradiance (W/m(2)) and illuminance (lux) were measured only in the Sacred Vestments room, being textiles highly sensitive to light.