In the Early and High Middle Ages, books were objects of the greatest sacred importance. The body of a book and its pages were often decorated with precious materials.

Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the project is led by Professor David Ganz, Chair of Medieval Art History at the Institute of Art History of the University of Zurich. The research project seeks to make a comprehensive study of the share of artistic decoration in the production and use of sacred books during the Western Middle Ages.

In the context of the project, the department of conservation research at the National Museum is conducting non-destructive analyses of stones, settings, pigments and inks using portable apparatus for X-ray fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, and digital microscopy. Analyses are conducted on-site in renowned libraries across Europe; the findings will be published in research papers and doctoral theses.

Project website

Project participants

• Head of project: Prof Dr David Ganz, University of Zurich, chair of Medieval Art History
• Dr Thomas Rainer, University of Zurich, research associate, Medieval Art History
• Ms Katharina Theil, University of Zurich, doctoral associate, Medieval Art History
• Ms Sabrina Schmid, University of Zurich, doctoral associate, Medieval Art History
• Dr Tiziana Lombardo, Conservation Research, Swiss National Museum
• Dr Katharina Schmidt-Ott, Conservation Research, Swiss National Museum
• Prof Dr Maurizio Aceto, Università degli studi del Piemonte, Vercelli (I)