Characterization of Handmade Papers (13th–15th century) from Camerino and Fabriano (Marche, Italy)

The dispute over the paternity of western paper is a longstanding problem. In Italy, a country that has a long tradition of papermaking, many cities compete for the leadership in the production of this material; on the other hand, several studies attribute to Fabriano (13th century), a little center in Marche region, the birth of modern paper and its diffusion throughout Europe. During the 14thcentury, the nearby town of Camerino imposed itself on the paper market, triggering a historic rivalry with the manufacture of Fabriano. As scientific studies on these different productions are missing, a comparative, multidisciplinary investigation has been carried out to characterize a set of thirteenth-fifteenth century handmade papers from Camerino-Fabriano area. Several analytical techniques–some non-invasive such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and portable magnetic resonance (unilateral NMR), joined to micro-destructive ones such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), 13C CPMAS NMR spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and reverse-phase liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC)–have been employed in order to study the morphology of the paper documents, to identify the substances used in production process and to define their preservation state. Moreover principal component analysis (PCA) has been applied to the spectroscopic data, allowing the clustering of Fabriano documents with respect to Camerino ones and dividing the samples in two sets. This work improves and confirms knowledges on paper production in Marche region, and the experimental data collected highlight similarities and differences between Camerino and Fabriano manufactures.