CONSERVATION MONITORING OF AN ENCAPSULATED MANUSCRIPT - THE 13TH CENTURY LEGENDARIUM
The Research Department of Manuscripts of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been preserving an illuminated manuscript on parchment - the lives of the saints written in Latin; the manuscript is called the Legendarium and is one of the rarest medieval literary monuments of the 13th-14th centuries, of exceptional value both scientifically and artistically. Obviously, the existing losses and text dropouts, fragments of which are absent in the envelope, occurred in the period between the restoration and the encapsulation, otherwise the damaged sites would have kept traces of restorative fortifications, and fragments of losses and crumbles would have been found in the encapsulation envelopes. The examination showed that since the manuscript was placed in the encapsulation envelope the process of destruction has stopped, as the encapsulation provided maximal protection of the monument from mechanical stress, dust and other pollutants, and also reduced fluctuations of temperature and humidity.